Kathmandu, May 11: President Ramchandra Paudel presented the government’s policy and program for the upcoming fiscal year at a joint session of the Federal Parliament. He delivered the policy document this afternoon at the Federal Parliament Building in Singha Durbar.
The government has prioritized economic development, infrastructure promotion, good governance, and social justice in its policy and program. Likewise, issues included in the manifesto released by the Rastriya Swatantra Party (RSP) during the last election have also been incorporated.
The government led by senior RSP leader Balen Shahpresented a 100-point policy and program for the upcoming fiscal year. The program includes plans for physical infrastructure development, the use of information technology, and financial and administrative reforms.
The government has announced the implementation of a new infrastructure financing model by mobilizing alternative development finance, diaspora capital, and private investment. It has also adopted a policy of advancing transformative projects with clear targets, fixed budgets, and strict deadlines; signing performance agreements with project chiefs; introducing digital tracking; resolving land acquisition and forest-related obstacles; and ensuring that key personnel are not reassigned until projects are completed.
The government aims to make public expenditure results-oriented, reform public enterprises, and reduce expenditure. It has embraced a borderless economy and weightless trade as national economic strategies.
The policy and program also seeks to provide legal recognition to international payment gateways to facilitate foreign currency earnings and tax management. The information technology sector has been declared a national strategic industry, with plans to promote Nepal as a tech hub, provide financial incentives to IT export industries, and facilitate investment.
The government has introduced a new “Investment Express Policy,” under which processes from business registration to construction permits will be completed within 30 days. Investors making investments above a specified threshold will be eligible for a “Nepali Investment Visa.”
Through the “Startup Nepal Portal,” investors will be able to access one-day company registration, tax exemptions, seed funding, and related services. The policy also promotes multilateral investment to revive the rural economy and establish agriculture as a respectable and entrepreneurial profession.
The government plans to attract returning migrant workers into agricultural enterprises, set minimum support prices for crops before investment, ensure direct deposit of subsidies into farmers’ bank accounts, and strengthen the Food Management and Trading Company.
It has also proposed integrating land survey and land revenue services and gradually expanding land administration services to all local levels, while modern technology will be used for land measurement and mapping.
Programs have been included to establish a Nepal Carbon Authority, create a forest fire high-alert center, increase access to international climate finance, develop a green bond framework, and fully implement the “Net Zero 2045” commitment.
The government has also emphasized drafting a national industrial policy, providing national enterprise promotion facilities, and effectively implementing the Nepal Trade Integrated Strategy and the Trade Deficit Reduction Action Plan.
To prepare for “Visit Nepal 2085,” the government will promote Nepal internationally with the aim of increasing tourist arrivals, per-tourist spending, and average length of stay. It will launch the “Devbhumi Nepal National Campaign,” brand Nepal homestays, and introduce a legal framework for a “remote work” policy allowing foreigners to work for overseas employers while staying in Nepal.
Skills of youths returning from foreign employment will be documented through a digital skill passport system and linked to international professional certification.
The policy and program for the upcoming fiscal year also includes new initiatives such as a remittance investment matching fund, an employment promotion decade, implementation of a child-responsive budget code, establishment of a national biological research laboratory, and branding Nepali water under the label “Himalayan Origin Certified Water.”
Other major programs include the Investment Express initiative, implementation of a zero-day procurement policy from next Shrawan, maximum use of AI, the “Brand Nepal” campaign, establishment of a Central Response Unit, a Knowledge Bank, one-stop service centers in all offices, restructuring the National Vigilance Center into an anti-corruption unit, and developing a credible think tank and national policy research institution.
People’s News Monitoring Service.
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