Forum for Protection of Public Interest (Pro Public), in association with South Asia Watch on Trade, Economics and Environment (SAWTEE) and Society of Economic Journalists – Nepal (SEJON), organized a one and half day media workshop on Doha Development Agenda and Nepal’s Concern from 18-19 July 2008 in Kathmandu. The objective of the programme was to aware economic journalists on Doha Development Agenda (DDA), its major elements, status of negotiation on major issues of WTO and to identify the issues to be incorporated in their future reporting on such issues.
In his remarks, Mr Purushottam Ojha, Secretary of Industries, Commerce and Supplies, said that agriculture and non-agriculture market access, trade facilitation, special and differential treatment, aid for trade are the major concerns of Nepal. 'Nepal has already cut its tariff rates substantially and bound 99.3 percent of its tariffs; it doesn’t need to work on tariff cuts in the present round', he further said, 'therefore it has to sort out market barriers of its agriculture and non-agriculture produces immediately so that further negotiations would become an effective'. Mr Ojha opined that capacity building programme for trade negotiators as well as other stakeholders is urgent need in Nepal to ensure the effective participation in multi-lateral, regional and bilateral trade negotiations.
Speaking at the programme, Mr Ratnakar Adhikari, President of SAWTEE, said that political commitment of the USA and the European Union will be critical to conclude the present round of negotiation successfully. If they are ready to revise their trade distorting domestic support on agriculture the coming mini-ministerial meeting to be held in Geneva this week would definitely bring the tangible result; he added- otherwise resurgence of protectionist tendency and proliferation of bilateral free trade agreements with WTO plus conditions will take place. Mr Adhikari also educated the journalists about major elements of DDA and shared the recent development in the negotiation.
During the progrmame, Dr Shree Krishna Shrestha, President of Pro Public, Mr Kiran Nepal, President of SEJON and Gokarna Awasthi, an economic journalist, reiterated the need of capacity building programme in Nepal. They urged journalists while reporting trade issues and policy makers while formulating policies and programmes to look on the human face. At the end of the programme, some of the issues related with DDA/WTO were identified for future reporting. About 35 economic journalists from major national media houses based in Kathmandu were present in the workshop.
Despite
the slow economic growth in the last decade, Nepal
has tremendously progressed on reducing poverty;
it is due to greater inflow of remittances and investment
on health, education and other social sectors -
experts said.
Speaking at national policy dialogue “Economic
Growth and Poverty Reduction in Nepal” held
on 20 November 2007 organised by Forum for Protection
of Public Interest (Pro Public) and South Asia Watch
on Trade Economics & Environment (SAWTEE), they
opined that if we channel remittances into productive
investment, concentrate public investment on health,
education, drinking water, transport and communication
and increase rural economic growth by proper policy
of agriculture development Nepal can progress more
rapidly on reducing poverty in the future.
In his inaugural remarks, Dr
Posh Raj Pandey honorable member, National Planning
Commission (NPC), said that Nepal’s poverty
reduction by 11 percentage point during 1994/95
to 2004/05 is not only due to inflow of remittances
but also good average economic growth of that
period. He said that four percent average economic
growth rate was prevailing during that period
which, coupled with remittances, contributed to
reduce poverty in the last decade. He further
added that however inequality has widened in some
of the pockets after adoption of liberalisation
NPC is planning to launch targeted programme for
poverty reduction in those pocket areas in incoming
interim plan.
Dr Dilli
Raj Khanal, honorable Member of Parliament, said
that economic growth is necessary condition for
poverty reduction however it could not alone reduce
poverty in the changed context because, nowadays,
social dimensions - health, education, democracy,
human rights, etc - are also given higher importance
while measuring poverty. Dr Khanal further said
that inequality has widened in post liberalisation
era due to lack of equitable and qualitative growth;
so we need to make economic growth inclusive to
reduce poverty and narrow down inequality in a
sustainable way.
Dr Shiva Sharma, General Secretary
of National Labour Academy, with illustration,
said that incidence of poverty among rural farm
labour households, small land holding households,
Dalit and Muslim communities is high. Pointing
out the growing inequality as a major threat for
poverty reduction, Dr Sharma said that if we neutralise
increasing inequality accompanied with economic
growth population below poverty would fall sharply
in the coming days.
Prof Dr Devendra
Chhetry, Head, Central Department of Statistics
at Tribhuvan University, told that decade long
conflict forced rural people to migrate into market
centres; rapid migration into market centres and
remittances inflow into those areas jointly contributed
for urban centered growth. He cautioned on conventional
method of national accounting system in Nepal
that could not bring every economic activity into
the system.
Altogether sixty six participants
from central bank, central bureau of statistics,
I/NGOs, government ministries attended in the
programme. Dr Shiva Sharma and Professor Dr Devendra
Chhetry made presentations on “Economic
Growth and Poverty Reduction in Nepal in the Last
Decade” and “Measurement of Poverty
in Nepal” respectively.
A two day
regional media workshop cum interaction programme
for journalists of Eastern Nepal was organised by
Forum for Protection of Public Interest (Pro Public),
in association with Society of Economic Journalists
of Nepal (SEJON) and South Asia Watch on Trade,
Economics & Environment (SAWTEE) in Biratnagar,
Morang, Nepal on 14 - 15 May 2007.
The objective of the workshop was to make the journalists
aware about the linkage between trade and poverty,
particularly in the Nepali context and to enhance
their reporting skills on issues of trade, development
and poverty. The workshop was participated by thirty
two journalists representing different print and
electronic media from Biratnagar and surrounding
districts. The panel discussion on the first day
was participated by twenty local level stakeholders,
besides the journalists.
A panel discussion was organised on the first day
of the programme so that the outcomes of the discussion
would give some food for thought to the journalists
for the next day workshop. The panelists invited
for the panel discussion included Mr Baijanath Thapaliya,
Associate Professor, Mahendra Morang Campus, Biratnagar;
Dr Bhesh Prasad Dhamala, Associate Professor of
Economics at the Post Graduate Campus, Biratnagar;
Mr Shankar Agrawal, Immediate Past President of
Morang Merchants’ Association, Biratnagar;
Mr Mahesh Bhattarai, Chief Manager, Nepal Rastra
Bank Eastern Regional Office, Biratnagar; Mr Mani
Aryal, Director, Nepal Rural Development Society
Centre, Biratnagar and Mr Khagendra Sigdel, Expert,
Itahari.
Dr Puskar Bajracharya, Professor at the Central
Department of Management at Tribhuvan University,
Dr Shiva Sharma, General Secretary at the National
Labor Academy, Nepal and Mr Prateek Pradhan, Editor,
The Kathmandu Post, were the resource persons for
the second day of the media workshop. The topic
for Dr Bajracharya's presentation was “Trade
and Poverty Reduction: Theoretical Perspective and
Nepalese Experience” whereas Dr Sharma presented
on “Agriculture Trade and Poverty Reduction
in Nepal”. Similarly Mr Pradhan made his presentation
on “Reporting Skills on the linkages between
Trade and Poverty”.
National Workshop: WTO and Nepalese
Agriculture Sector
A
one day national workshop titled "WTO and Nepalese
Agriculture Sector" was organised on 11 April
2007 by Forum for Protection of Public Interest
(Pro Public) in association with National Federation
of Irrigation Water Users' Association of Nepal
(NFIWUAN) and South Asia Watch on Trade, Economics
& Environment (SAWTEE). A total of about 65
participants that included 45
district representatives of NFIWUAN, participated
in the workshop. The major objective of the workshop
was to aware the participants about the World Trade
Organisation (WTO) and its impact on agriculture
and discuss the opportunities and challenges faced
by the Nepalese Agriculture Sector in the post WTO
era.
Dr Krishna Prasad
Pant, Senior Agriculture Economist and Under Secretary
at the Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperatives
(MoAC) said that the government has implemented
various policies and programmes for the commercialisation
of Nepalese agriculture. However, because of the
lack of basic agricultural inputs and infrastructure
that has hindered our competitive strength; Nepalese
agriculture has not yet been able to be commercial.
He informed the participants that the government
has recently introduced Agribusiness Promotion
Policy 2006 and said that in order to benefit
from Nepal's membership in the WTO; we should
pay great attention to the quality of our agro
produce.
In the second session of the
programme, Mr Navin Dahal, Executive Director
at SAWTEE, informed the participants about what
the WTO is how it functions. He also informed
them
about Nepal's commitments in the WTO, in relation
to agriculture. He expressed concern over the
lack of the government's inability to provide
subsidy to Nepalese farmers, although under the
WTO provision Nepal can adequately do so. Therefore,
he urged the farmers to be united and pressurise
the government to ensure that they receive such
facility.
Mr Ganesh Kumar KC, Secretary
at MoAC said that the government's inability to
provide subsidy to its farmers is because of the
lack of resources. However, the government has
initiated work in that direction, he said. Responding
to the participants' query on why the national
budget allocated to the agriculture sector has
been reduced every year and the administrative
expenses of MoAC exceeds the programme expenses,
he said that it was because of the political situation
of the country. In the changed circumstances,
he asked the participants to be assured that the
government is determined to provide all forms
of subsidy to its farmers, as much as possible.
Most importantly he stressed on the need of coordination
among various ministries for the development of
agriculture related infrastructure like road,
irrigation, electricity, etc.
The third session of the workshop
focused on farmers' rights in the context of intellectual
property rights regime under the WTO. Mr Kamalesh
Adhikari, Programme Coordinator of the Grass roots
and Policy linkage (GRAPOL) Project of SAWTEE
informed the participants about the Agreement
on Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property
Rights (TRIPS) and its options for the protection
of plant varieties. Being a member of the WTO,
it is mandatory that Nepal needs to keep in place
legislation for the protection of plant varieties,
he said. He then informed the participants about
Nepal's ongoing efforts for the enactment of such
legislation and the need to protect farmers' rights.
Click here for full report
A
daylong Regional Media Workshop on "Trade
and Poverty: Where is the Linkage?" was organised
in Nepalgunj on 23 February 2007. Forum for Protection
of Public Interest (Pro Public) in association
with South Asia Watch on Trade, Economics &
Environment (SAWTEE) and Society of Economic Journalists
of Nepal (SEJON) had
organised the workshop. About seventy journalists
of mid-western and far-western development region,
including those from remote districts of Kalikot
and Pyuthan attended the workshop.
As in the previous media workshops organsied in
Nagarkot and Birgunj, the objectives of the workshop
were to build the capacity of journalists in understanding
the importance of trade and its contribution in
poverty reduction; to impart awareness to journalists
on the major trade related issues of Nepal; to
build the capacity of journalists in linking trade
related issues with national agenda of poverty
reduction; and to enable journalists generate
news/reports which could make substantial contribution
in devising policies that would protect the interests
of domestic industries, farmers and consumers,
and create employment and income generation opportunities.
In the first session of the workshop, Dr Shiva
Sharma, General Secretary of the National Labour
Academy, Nepal gave general information on the
situation and distribution of poverty in Nepal,
the importance of agriculture in the Nepalese
economy and the contribution of agro-trade in
poverty reduction.
He expressed concern over the decline in public
investment in agriculture sector, which is the
largest sector of the Nepalese economy and has
employed about 65 percent of the country's population.
Referring to the falling prices of agricultural
products, he said that even though prices have
fallen in the post-agricultural liberalisation
era benefiting the consumers, farmers have been
badly hurt by rise in input prices and cheaper
imports of rice from India.
Dr Sharma strongly advocated for restoration of
subsidy in order to generate sufficient return/income
and encourage commercialisation of agriculture.
In the second session of the workshop, presenting
on "Manufacturing and Poverty in Nepal",
Dr Sharma said that manufacturing sector is one
of the leading employment generating sectors and
contributes to poverty reduction through employment
generation and use of domestic raw materials.
However, in the case of Nepal, he noted that the
backward linkage of the Nepalese manufacturing
sector was poor since most of the manufacturing
industries operate with imported input. Also,
the overall employment created by the manufacturing
sector in Nepal has been low and therefore, it
has not been contributing strongly to poverty
reduction.
In the third session of the programme, Mr Bijaya
Ghimire, President of SEJON made a presentation
on "Reporting skills on the linkage between
Trade and Poverty".
Mr Ghimire shared his experience of over a decade
on economic journalism and highlighted how quality
and quantity of news on business and trade have
been improved over the years in Nepal. He said
that journalists could and should identify constraints
that have impeded trade and industrial growth
in the regions and take active steps in pinpointing
those constraints to policymakers for necessary
intervention.
Since farmers form a vulnerable and unorganised
group in the country, journalists should be watchful
to issues related to them and bring those to the
fore immediately, he said.
Forum
for Protection of Public Interest (Pro Public),
in association with South Asia Watch on Trade,
Economics & Environment (SAWTEE) and Society
of Economic Journalists Nepal (SEJON), organised
a two-day media workshop cum interaction programme
on the topic "Trade and Poverty: Where is
the linkage?" on 7 - 8 January, 2007 in Birgunj,
Parsa. The
objective of the programme was to aware the local
journalists about the linkage between trade and
poverty and to enhance their reporting skill on
the issue of such linkage. About forty journalists
based in Birgunj and around and associated with
different print and electronic media participated
in the programme. Besides the two sessions in
which only the journalists participated to discuss
about trade and poverty in the Nepali context,
a session was organised in which other stakeholders
– business people, government officials
and other experts – were also invited. This
session was particularly organised so that the
journalists could share their views with other
stakeholders. On the first day of the programme,
the participants also went on a field trip to
a nearby village to gain some field level experiences.
The resource persons for the workshop were Dr
Pushkar Bajracharya, Professor, Central Department
of Management, and Dr Chiranjibi Nepal, Lecturer,
Central Department of Economics, Tribhuvan University.
They said that the major factors that help trade
to occur in any country are absolute advantage,
comparative advantage and resource endowment.
Trade benefits all those who participate in the
activity and helps in poverty reduction through
growth. Citing a few cases from Nepal, they said
that the carpet, garment and pashmina sectors
had provided employment to a large number of people
and had helped in the reduction of poverty, although
the present condition has deteriorated.
The resource persons suggested the journalists
that while looking into the linkage between trade
and poverty, they need to observe the relations
between trade and employment and trade and equity.
They should also be cautious to check whether
the government is making investments in sectors
where poor people work and in areas where poor
people live.
In the interaction session with other stakeholders,
the business people said that the business community
in Birgunj was passing through an insecured phase
because of problems of kidnappings and extortions.
As a result, cost of trade is increasing and private
investment is decreasing. In such a situation,
discussing the linkage between trade and poverty
would merely be rhetoric.
Media workshop: Role of trade
in poverty reduction
Forum
for Protection of Public Interest (Pro Public),
in association with Society of Economic Journalists
of Nepal (SEJON) and South Asia Watch on Trade,
Economics & Environment (SAWTEE), organised
a one and a half day media workshop on the topic
"Role of trade in poverty reduction"
on 1-2 December 2006 in Nagarkot, Kathmandu. The
objective of the workshop was to aware economic
journalists
about the linkage between trade and poverty, particularly
in the Nepali context and to enhance their reporting
skills on issues of trade and poverty. The workshop
was participated by twenty seven economic journalists
of different print and electronic media of Nepal.
The workshop was divided into four sessions during
which the participants discussed about the theoretical
concepts of the link between trade and poverty,
such links in the Nepali context and the tools
that can be used to analyse the links.
The resource persons of the workshop highlighted
the importance of liberalisation in the present
globalised world, but cautioned that liberalisation
should be accompanied
by adequate safety nets for the vulnerable sections
of the society. Although Nepal has undertaken
liberal trade policy, comprehensive and compensatory
policies have not been undertaken simultaneously.
As a result, there have been no substantial gains
from trade liberalisation so far. The participants,
therefore, highlighted the need to develop mechanisms
that would ensure the transfer of gains of trade
liberalisation to the poor.
The participants also emphasised that unless enough
attention is paid to the Nepali agricultural sector,
poverty reduction would not be possible because
the Nepali non-farm sector at present does not
have the capacity to absorb the large number of
youth who enter the Nepali job market every year.
Therefore, competitiveness of the Nepali agricultural
sector should be enhanced. For that matter, policies
and programmes to support the agricultural sector,
for example, by means of developing infrastructure
and providing subsidies is called for. Similarly,
in the non-agricultural front, promoting backward
linkages, developing institutions like export
houses to promote micro and small activities are
must for transmitting the gains of trade liberalisation
to the poor.
During the session in which the tools required
to analyse the linkage between trade and poverty
were discussed, the participants were cautioned
to be aware while using the different tools since
a small error would convey an entirely different
message.
Feedback of the participants about the workshop
was encouraging.
Budget 063 / 064: Economic Policies
for Poverty Reduction
Kathmandu,
21 June 2006: Forum for Protection of Public
Interest (Pro Public), South Asia Watch on Trade,
Economics & Environment (SAWTEE) and Institute
for Policy Research and Development (IPRAD) jointly
organized a round table discussion "Budget
063 / 064: Economic Policies for Poverty Reduction"
in order to identify the economic agendas to be
incorporated in the budget of the FY '063 / '064
to make it pro poor in the short run, and for
future development plans in the long run. The
participants of the program unanimously said that
in the present changed context, there is a dire
need to have a common economic agenda amongst
all political parties, including the Maoists,
in the same manner as they have a common political
agenda.
Delivering his welcome address, Dr Posh Raj Pandey,
President, SAWTEE, said that in the present context,
people have high expectations in spite of the
gloomy picture of our economy. Therefore, there
are various issues, like the objectives of our
economic policy, the role of the state, allocation
and distribution of our resources, revenue mobilization,
etc. to be addressed while formulating our economic
policies.
Dr Dilli Raj Khanal, Hon'ble Member of Parliament
of CPN (UML) said that our economic policies should
not be based on external dictation. There is an
urgent need of agrarian reform apart from the
focus on empowerment of the vulnerable and the
marginalized, he said.
Dr Prakash Saran Mahat of Nepali Congress (Democratic)
expressed his views that the future economy of
Nepal can neither follow the path of absolute
control by the state, nor that of a pure market
economy. Hence, there is a need to follow the
middle path where the market economy is left to
work on its own and the government should play
the role of a facilitator and regulator. He also
stressed on the need to design special plans with
the major objective of rural development instead
of the conventional approach of "five year
development plan". Increasing the grants
to the VDCs from the existing 5 lakhs to 10 lakhs
might be helpful, he said.
Mr Rajendra Khetan, Vice President of the Confederation
of Nepalese Industries (CNI), questioned the timeframe
of the coming budget in the context of the present
political developments. He said that the coming
budget should follow the strategy of one family
– one employment. The private sector is
ready to cooperate with the government for the
success of such a strategy if the latter brings
about radical changes in its policies and makes
it clear, he said.
Dr Bal Gopal Baidya, Chairman, New Era, said that
the budget should primarily focus on maintaining
political and business confidence; and in the
rehabilitation of people and reconstruction of
infrastructure affected by conflict.
Mr Prithvi Raj Ligal, Former Vice Chairperson,
National Planning Commission, opined that if the
upcoming budget is a transitional budget for the
short term, it would be better not to increase
its size. He also said that economic and development
agendas should come together with the political
agendas.
Mr Swarnim Wagle of UNDP Regional Centre in Colombo
said that although the expectations of the people
are high in spite of various constraints in the
coming budget, a few things can be addressed to
make it pro poor and give the people a realization
of change. He said that the budget should address
the issue of land reform and its modality. Focus
should be on infrastructure and hydropower development
with employment guarantee scheme and trade in
services, he said.
In his closing remarks, Dr Shree Krishna Shrestha,
President, Pro Public said that we should now
strive on the process of building up consensus
for providing economic mandate to the government
in the same manner as we provided political mandate.
He said that the budget should be able to manage
the expectations of the people in the changed
context to avoid conflict in the future. It should
be equity based rather than efficiency based,
said he.
About 35 lawmakers, political parties' representatives,
economists, poverty experts, civil society representatives
and the media participated in the discussion.
Kathmandu,
26 May 2006: Forum
for Protection of Public Interest (Pro-Public),
South Asia Watch on Trade, Economics & Environment
(SAWTEE) and Institute for Policy Research and
Development (IPRAD), in collaboration with in
collaboration with CUTS International, Jaipur,
India, jointly organized a National Policy Dialogue
“Linkages between Trade and Poverty Reduction:
Transmission Mechanism and Impact” in Kathmandu. Speaking
at the program, experts cautioned that although
trade liberalization contributes greatly in poverty
reduction, experiences across the globe have shown
that it also widens income inequalities. They
stressed for the formulation of compensatory policies
to ensure positive impact of trade liberalization
on poverty reduction. “Trade liberalization
alone would have very little impact on poverty
reduction unless the country has good enough macro
policies and supportive institutional environment,”
they said.
“Without the establishment of clear-cut
linkages between trade and poverty reduction and
well conceived programs, poverty reduction impact
of trade cannot be realized,” said Finance
Minister Dr Ram Sharan Mahat. He conceded there
was a need to incorporate strong anti-poverty
programs in the trade liberalization plan and
also give focus to trade as a real tool of poverty
reduction in the national development plan.
Presenting a paper
on the occasion, Dr Posh Raj Pandey, Chairman
of SAWTEE, highlighted that external sector liberalization
had contributed significantly in reducing poverty
in many East and South-East Asian countries. “South
Asian experience further confirms the global empirical
finding that relationship between trade openness
and poverty emanates through growth performance,”
he said.
But for a country like Nepal that is basically
an agrarian and subsistence economy, strategic
interventions become very essential, he said.
“As increased openness has had some negative
effects on agriculture, support to agriculture
by means of infrastructure like irrigation, power
and road is called for.”
Referring to recent findings of growing inequalities
among the poor, Dr Pandey stressed for reorientation
of policies, formulation of safety nets, and enhancing
the capacity of the poor to compete in the market
place.
“The rural poor in Nepal are largely untouched
by changes in trade policy, therefore, export
opportunities must be linked with agriculture
and rural economic activities to address rural
poverty,” he said. He further noted that
the country’s development strategy like
PRSP must explicitly address as to how trade would
directly benefit the poor.
Dr Pandey also stressed for compensatory domestic
tax measures, as duty reduction and elimination
of other duties and charges (ODCs) and export
service charges, as per WTO commitments, might
pull revenue down.
On the external front, Nepal should lobby for
relaxation in rules of origin and push for early
completion of Doha Development Round Work Plan
that promises LDCs with a window of opportunity
towards obtaining greater market access, he added.
Dr Dilli Raj Khanal, Member of Parliament and
Former Member of the National Planning Commission,
on the other hand, noted that although trade reform
has positive growth and poverty effect at least
at the aggregate level, the magnitude of impact
is debatable.
Presenting a paper “Trade
and Poverty Linkages: An Overview of Developing
Countries' Experiences,” he cautioned
that trade liberalization could lead to real wage
losses to the unskilled workforce. To address
it, he called for suitable labor policy that raises
labor productivity and discourages informalization
of the labor market.
In a bid to reap the positive fruits of trade
liberalization, he urged for broad-based reforms,
agrarian reforms including land reforms, structural
reforms in industry and trade for ensuring income
and employment opportunities to the small producers
and business people.
“The development of market institutions,
especially safeguarding the interest of local
small producers, craftsmen and entrepreneurs would
also be crucial in this respect.”
Sharing their views on the occasion, other experts
opined that trade reforms could be detrimental
if not supported by infrastructure development,
development of markets, extension services in
agriculture and entrepreneurs’ access to
credit facilities.
They also urged for better access to health and
education services for quality human development.
Mathew Kahane, resident representative of UNDP;
Dr Pushpa Raj Rajkarnikar, executive director
of IPRAD; and Dr Shree Krishna Shrestha, Chairman
of Pro-Public also shared their views on the occasion.
Kathmandu, 11 November
2005: Experts speaking
at the launch meeting of the TDP Project stressed
that poverty reduction in a country like Nepal
is not possible without streamlining and linking
trade and development policies with the national
poverty reduction strategies.
They viewed that there is a serious need for Nepal
to manifest the policy relevance and coherence
of international trade on poverty reduction, especially
in the light of the fact that Nepal now is a member
of the World Trade Organisation (WTO).
Making a presentation of the key findings of a
preliminary research paper on the issue in the
Nepalese context, Dr Yubaraj Khatiwada, Executive
Director, Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB), pointed out
that trade issues should be addressed adequately
in documents such as the Poverty Reduction Strategy
Paper (PRSP).
"Trade, investment and industrial policies,
including fiscal and monetary policies, should
not be formulated in isolation. These policies
need to be devised against the core objectives
of poverty alleviation," he opined, adding,
"There have been failures in this regard."
He also stressed that
there is a need to devise proper safety nets and
enhance the capacity of the poor to compete in
markets, which are in the present day markedly
affected by international forces in the context
of multilateralism.
He added, "Strategic interventions should
be made to build supply side capacities and capabilities
of the poor". His observations come at a
time when Nepal is struggling to take advantage
of the market access opportunities offered by
the WTO.
During the same occasion, Mr Bharat Bahadur Thapa,
Secretary, Ministry of Industry, Commerce and
Supplies, said that ongoing discussions in Nepal
relating to linkages between trade, development
and poverty reduction could not have been better
timed.
However, he admitted that there is a lack of adequate
assimilation of policy recommendations being made
to the government, and that policy updates do
not happen to the extent they need to.
Likewise, Dr Shree Krishna Shrestha, President,
Pro Public, said that there is serious dearth
of linkages between the macro and micro issues
in Nepal. "Lack of linkages between policies
and ground realities have more often than not
failed to deliver on the core objectives with
which the policies were formulated," he stressed.
Speaking during the same occasion, Dr Posh Raj
Pandey, President, SAWTEE, pointed that the effect
of liberal trade policies on poverty reduction
is still a debated one. He said, "Though
there are empirical evidences to prove the positive
impact of liberal trade policies on poverty reduction,
there are also cases in which certain groups of
people or sectors have become more vulnerable
and marginalised due to international exposure."
Speaking at national policy dialogue “Economic
Growth and Poverty Reduction in Nepal” held
on 20 November 2007 organised by Forum for Protection
of Public Interest (Pro Public) and South Asia Watch
on Trade Economics & Environment (SAWTEE), they
opined that if we channel remittances into productive
investment, concentrate public investment on health,
education, drinking water, transport and communication
and increase rural economic growth by proper policy
of agriculture development Nepal can progress more
rapidly on reducing poverty in the future. 
The objective of the workshop was to make the journalists
aware about the linkage between trade and poverty,
particularly in the Nepali context and to enhance
their reporting skills on issues of trade, development
and poverty. The workshop was participated by thirty
two journalists representing different print and
electronic media from Biratnagar and surrounding
districts. The panel discussion on the first day
was participated by twenty local level stakeholders,
besides the journalists.
district representatives of NFIWUAN, participated
in the workshop. The major objective of the workshop
was to aware the participants about the World Trade
Organisation (WTO) and its impact on agriculture
and discuss the opportunities and challenges faced
by the Nepalese Agriculture Sector in the post WTO
era. 
had
organised the workshop. About seventy journalists
of mid-western and far-western development region,
including those from remote districts of Kalikot
and Pyuthan attended the workshop.
The
objective of the programme was to aware the local
journalists about the linkage between trade and
poverty and to enhance their reporting skill on
the issue of such linkage. About forty journalists
based in Birgunj and around and associated with
different print and electronic media participated
in the programme. Besides the two sessions in
which only the journalists participated to discuss
about trade and poverty in the Nepali context,
a session was organised in which other stakeholders
– business people, government officials
and other experts – were also invited. This
session was particularly organised so that the
journalists could share their views with other
stakeholders. On the first day of the programme,
the participants also went on a field trip to
a nearby village to gain some field level experiences.
ists
about the linkage between trade and poverty, particularly
in the Nepali context and to enhance their reporting
skills on issues of trade and poverty. The workshop
was participated by twenty seven economic journalists
of different print and electronic media of Nepal.
mpanied
by adequate safety nets for the vulnerable sections
of the society. Although Nepal has undertaken
liberal trade policy, comprehensive and compensatory
policies have not been undertaken simultaneously.
As a result, there have been no substantial gains
from trade liberalisation so far. The participants,
therefore, highlighted the need to develop mechanisms
that would ensure the transfer of gains of trade
liberalisation to the poor.
The
participants of the program unanimously said that
in the present changed context, there is a dire
need to have a common economic agenda amongst
all political parties, including the Maoists,
in the same manner as they have a common political
agenda.
Speaking
at the program, experts cautioned that although
trade liberalization contributes greatly in poverty
reduction, experiences across the globe have shown
that it also widens income inequalities. They
stressed for the formulation of compensatory policies
to ensure positive impact of trade liberalization
on poverty reduction. “Trade liberalization
alone would have very little impact on poverty
reduction unless the country has good enough macro
policies and supportive institutional environment,”
they said.
