Kathmandu, October 26: Minister for Finance Dr Yubaraj Khatiwada has attributed Nepal’s progress in the rank of the World Bank’s Doing Business-2020 Index to the hard work of the Nepali stakeholders. Nepal has notched up 16 places in the Index for year 2020, ranking 94th among 190 countries in the world.
At a programme jointly organized by Ministry of Finance and World Bank here yesterday, Minister Khatiwada asserted the progress was a good response to the scepticism rife among some people regarding the implementation of federal set-up that was dubbed to be an extensive system.
Khatiwada credited formulation of more than 300 new laws and shortening of the transitional time for enabling Nepal to move up its position in this ranking. Stating that the incumbent government had emphasized industrialization, the Minister reaffirmed that the incumbent government had acknowledged coverage of road and electrification to be the catalyst for development works. Also speaking in the event, World Bank’s Country Director Faris Hadad-Zervos viewed that it was certainly a good news for Nepal that it ranked up 16 places in the Index compared to the last year but he said it was just a beginning of Nepal’s journey to economic prosperity.
Likewise, Shishir Dhungana, Secretary at the office of the Prime Minister reasoned the contribution and devotion of Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli as well as smooth coordination of the Council of Ministers for this progress. According to him, the stakeholders had also identified the gaps and were successful in establishing the agendas of reforms. He opined that with such changes, it would be relatively easier to attract foreign investment to Nepal. Undersecretary Mahesh Bhattarai said that Nepal was after India and Bhutan in the index among the SAARC-member countries.
According to him, integrated check post, credible judicial system, reforms in land administration and enforcement of one-stop centre among others had caused these favourable results. Entrepreneur Shekhar Golchha thanked Minister for Finance for achieving this progress. RSS
