Country fails to attract investment in service sector
KATHMANDU, APR 05:
Nepal could not take any advantage despite the country’s commitment under the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS) of global trade regime being the most liberal in South Asia.
“Nepal should table its initial offer under the SAARC Agreement on Trade in Services (SATIS) with GATS schedule of commitments,” said South Asia Watch on Trade, Economics and Environment (SAWTEE)’s research director Puspa Acharya, adding
that the country could show flexibility in relaxing conditions on the share of foreign equity participation in the offered sectors during the negotiations.
Similarly, Nepal can request other members of SAARC to open their services sector in which Nepal has high growth potential, comparative advantages and policy direction to develop the particular sector, he added.
After years of realisation of the need for regional cooperation in other areas like services trade, besides trade in goods, SAARC member countries have introduced SATIS, but they still need to identify the services sectors that they will offer to liberalise.
Recently, during the eighth meeting of the Expert Group on SAARC Agreement on Trade Service that concluded in Kathmandu, Nepal had selected five of its service sectors that are to be opened for SAARC members.
The service sectors within Nepal Trade Integration Strategy, that the country offered to open were trade, tourism, information technology, health and education for the SAARC member countries to invest in Nepal.
Nepal Trade Integration Strategy 2010 has identified 19 products that include seven services — tourism, labour, health, education, IT and BPO, engineering and hydro-electricity — with maximum potential.
Earlier, the South Asian regional block’s member states had made their initial offer to open over 170 sub-sectors of service for foreign investment under WTO norms. The 16th SAARC Summit in Bhutan in 2010 had decided to introduce the service sector in the SAFTA, which earlier had only incorporated goods for regional preferential trade.
Source: THT
