Line ministries to execute programmes under NTIC
KATHMANDU, MAY 20 -
Nepal Trade Integration Strategy (NTIS) 2010 will now be executed under a different modality, under which individual products and services will be owned and operated by line ministries.
As per the existing modality, the blue print for country’s export promotion was solely managed and executed by the Ministry of Commerce and Supplies (MoCS).
Amid criticism that NTIS “failed to yield tangible results”, the MoCS decided to transfer the ownership to line ministries.
The government had launched NTIS more than two years ago through a Cabinet decision in a bid to promote exports and bring reforms in export-oriented business es.
“The NTIS could not achieve the set targets mainly due to the lack of coordination between line ministries,” said Toya Narayan Gyanwali, joint secretary at the MoCS. He said now the responsibility of export promotion of certain items will be handed over to the ministries concerned.
The existing strategy has prioritised 19 products having export potential, including seven agriculture items, five industrial products and seven services.
Stakeholders and experts have been pointing out the lack of consorted action to fully explore the potential of NTIS items. “Although items under the NTIS have to be taken care of by different ministries concerned, none of the stakeholders paid attention, resulting in low effectiveness of the programme,” said a high level MoCS official. “The line ministries even denied cooperating with us.”
The MoCS now will be the programme’s coordinator, while the responsibility of developing schemes will be given to ministries concerned, according to Gyanwali.
MoCS officials said line ministries, including the Industry Ministry, Energy Ministry, Ministry of Agriculture Development, Tourism Ministry, Ministry of Science and Technology and Ministry of Labour and Employment, have been requested to get prepared for owning and operation the NTIS programme from their respective sides.
Source: The Kathmandu Post
