One of our major problems is absolute poverty and absolute backwardness, which is the basic weakness in our economic development, and which has led the country to a sluggish pace of development, of not more than 2 per cent average growth in 50 years. There has not been much change in the real income level of the people, and this small economic growth is wiped away by the population growth.

 

Therefore, we need a vision to figure out where we will be in the coming 10 years. For that, we have to bring in foreign investment and utilize our domestic resources to stimulate economic development.

 

During the period our party’s government, we had focused on taking growth to a double digit rate. For a ten per cent growth rate, 40 per cent of the GDP has to be invested. As the GDP is about NRs 1700 billion, we have to invest 700 bilion per year. One of the basic sources for this is internal tax revenue - which approximately generates NRs. 300bn out of which NRs. 150bn can be invested for development. The other source is remittance, which is approximately NRs 600bn out of which we invest Rs 200bn. We can arrange another Rs 200-300 billion from other internal sources. So, we should be able to bring in another Rs 200 billion as foreign investments. During the period of our party’s government we had listed Bilateral Investment Promotion and Protection Agreement (BIPPA) with India so as to attract Indian investment we should do similar agreement with other countries as well.

 

Therefore, it is important to mobilize national capital as well as foreign investment in order to reach a double-digit economic growth. And if we follow this economic strategy and invest in basic economic infrastructure like electricity, road, airports, and social infrastructure like education and health, not only will we witness growth in GDP but also growth in per capita income from USD750 to USD3000. In order to achieve this growth, there has to be a political commitment, consensus and most importantly, a stable and balanced government for five years to govern the country - whether it is the Nepali Congress, the UML or the unified CPN Maoist or any other party. As far as the UCPN (M) is concerned, it is totally committed towards inclusive development to reduce economic and social disparities.

 

Secondly, we have to maintain a stable policy with the two rapidly developing neighbouring countries, India and China. We have to turn into an investment pool for these countries in order to stimulate our development.

 

Lastly, we have to eradicate political and institutional corruption and until we do not do this, there will always be hindrances in development and investment. In order to mitigate this problem, we have to be transparent. Forceful donation has to stop and there should be a  system state funding to the political parties which will give rise to a transparent political party system.