There is also a Maoist movement in the Philippines, led by the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) and its armed unit, the NPA. But it is a lost and ideologically hopeless movement, formed in 1968 or 46 years ago. It exists only because of opportunism and desire for money. Their above-ground leaders winning as Party-list Congressmen and getting huge money in pork barrel fund every year, and the extortion activities known as "revolutionary tax" by the NPA, netting huge money too, victimizing some medium and big companies in the provinces. While the Maoists in the Philippines are forever losers, the Maoists in Nepal are the ruling party in power.
Robin and his buddies in Samriddhi, also my friend Charu Chadha of Business 360 and her team, and other brave and independent-minded individuals in Nepal, are doing their work. Asserting the philosophy of entrepreneurship, citizen self-reliance and rule of law. Good work my friends, keep the drums rolling.
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March 05, 2014
Since
turning into a Federal Democratic Republic in 2008, Nepal had its seventh Prime Minister last month in Nepali Congress leader, Sushil Koirala. However, we had
another reason to celebrate the month of love here at Samriddhi – getting
commitment from the government to embrace “second generation of economic
reforms”.
With the declaration “A Commitment to Economic Reform”, the government has pledgedto improve entry and exit procedures, improve its performance in the Doing Business indicators and eliminate unnecessary regulatory processes (starting with agriculture, tourism and energy sector) following the Nepal Economic Summit, which took place Feb 26 -28, 2014. Samriddhi, being the knowledge partner of the summit, had been working with the government in preparing the reform agendas months before the summit and a major win from the discourse was solidifying the understanding between the government and private sector to liberalize the energy sector to help Nepal come out of the acute electricity shortages resulting into the current twelve hours a day power outage situation. The summit was organized by the Government of Nepal and the Federation of Nepalese Chambers of Commerce and Industry.
Known to many as an important person in the movement for promoting liberty around the world, Mr. Rainer Hufeurs of SIAP Solutions (Singapore), was also one of the key speakers in the opening session of the Nepal Economic Summit and he shared examples from his work in East Asian nations to make a strong case for policy reforms in the direction of free markets. Right after the summit, Mr. Hufeurs also spent three days facilitating Samriddhi’s strategic planning workshop and we will be happy to share our strategic direction with you for the year 2014-15 after we process and put the information together this month.
With the declaration “A Commitment to Economic Reform”, the government has pledgedto improve entry and exit procedures, improve its performance in the Doing Business indicators and eliminate unnecessary regulatory processes (starting with agriculture, tourism and energy sector) following the Nepal Economic Summit, which took place Feb 26 -28, 2014. Samriddhi, being the knowledge partner of the summit, had been working with the government in preparing the reform agendas months before the summit and a major win from the discourse was solidifying the understanding between the government and private sector to liberalize the energy sector to help Nepal come out of the acute electricity shortages resulting into the current twelve hours a day power outage situation. The summit was organized by the Government of Nepal and the Federation of Nepalese Chambers of Commerce and Industry.
Known to many as an important person in the movement for promoting liberty around the world, Mr. Rainer Hufeurs of SIAP Solutions (Singapore), was also one of the key speakers in the opening session of the Nepal Economic Summit and he shared examples from his work in East Asian nations to make a strong case for policy reforms in the direction of free markets. Right after the summit, Mr. Hufeurs also spent three days facilitating Samriddhi’s strategic planning workshop and we will be happy to share our strategic direction with you for the year 2014-15 after we process and put the information together this month.
April 03, 2014
The month of
March became special for Nepal when its cricket team debuted at the ICC World
Twenty20 cricket and gave a performance which many consider harbinger of Nepali
cricket’s bright future. Although with outlook not as optimistic as Nepali
cricket, the Constituent Assembly (CA) made progress in the past month by
starting the process of taking ownership of
the work accomplished by the erstwhile CA. Also the coalition Government of
Nepali Congress and the Communist Party of Nepal –United Marxists Leninist
launched their 13-page Common Minimum Program which,
among other things, vows to frame a new constitution within a year. What we are
now wondering about is the exact baseline date for the much talked about one
year deadline.
For us here at Samriddhi Foundation, March was the month to step out and learn about the economic aspirations of Nepalese living in different parts of Nepal to identify policy priorities. Samriddhi team held consultations in five economics hubs (Biratnagar, Birgunj, Pokhara, Nepalgunj and Kathmandu) and spoke with over two hundred fifty local leaders to come up with a discussion paper that informs the current leadership about the economic aspirations of people and highlights policy priorities. Preliminary findings have shown an overwhelming support for a more open economy with government's role as a facilitator and the policy priorities to be focused on land usage, reforming labour laws and curbing corruption. These findings were shared with more than two dozen Constituent Assembly members in Kathmandu last week and we will be sharing the final discussion paper on economic aspirations and policy priorities with you in our next email.
For us here at Samriddhi Foundation, March was the month to step out and learn about the economic aspirations of Nepalese living in different parts of Nepal to identify policy priorities. Samriddhi team held consultations in five economics hubs (Biratnagar, Birgunj, Pokhara, Nepalgunj and Kathmandu) and spoke with over two hundred fifty local leaders to come up with a discussion paper that informs the current leadership about the economic aspirations of people and highlights policy priorities. Preliminary findings have shown an overwhelming support for a more open economy with government's role as a facilitator and the policy priorities to be focused on land usage, reforming labour laws and curbing corruption. These findings were shared with more than two dozen Constituent Assembly members in Kathmandu last week and we will be sharing the final discussion paper on economic aspirations and policy priorities with you in our next email.
Some of things we wrote about in the past month and were published in the national dailies:
·
Response to
the recent Oxfam report on wealth gap pointing
out 85 of the wealthiest people in the world owning as much wealth as the
poorest half of the world
·
Problem of transmission adding
to Nepal’s electricity crisis
·
Small
businesses like Kirana Pasals struggling with the
complicated process ofbeing formal
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See also:
Nepal and its Maoist Government, December 05, 2013
Business 360 8: TPP, RCEP, SAARC and Free Trade, June 17, 2013
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