KATHMANDU, Jan 22 - Experts at a preparatory meeting of Nepal Development Forum (NDF) have stressed on the need to rethink the privatization process in Nepal. The preparatory meeting for the NDF meeting started in the capital on January 21.

Meetings are being held on various issues in an attempt to collect inputs from the experts. The government is going to present its document on various national issues to the donors' meeting to be held from February 4 to 7 to seek their support on national economic reform programs.

Despite the government had launched the privatization process in the country during 1991 with a view to reduce the role of the government in business related-activities by attracting private investment to fuel the economy, however, it could not yield positive results due to flaws seen in its process. Presenting a paper on State-owned Enterprises Reform, Secretary at the Ministry of Finance Dr Bimal Koirala also said that rethinking is urgently needed in Nepal's privatization process to move in a changed context. Mainly privatization process suffered due to weak monitoring and evaluation, Koirala noted.

Koirala said that the government was not in a position to address all problems related to public sector enterprises due to its limited resources, adding that public sector reform is so costly which needs huge resources. However, there is no alternative to privatization, he also added. Koirala suggested that private sector people should be involved in the privatization process of PEs.

Commenting on the paper, Dr Shanker Sharma, Member of the National Planning Commission (NPC) said that the government had been very weak in implementing the policies that have directly hit the growth and sustainability of the enterprises. The government has to work very strongly to facilitate the private sector with strong regulations and to make the process a success, Sharma pointed out. Out of the total development budget, 20 per cent alone goes to public enterprises which is a big burden for the state, he said. President of Management Association of Nepal Dr Yuv Raj Khatiwada was of the opinion that prioritization of privatization is very inevitable. Without being clear on such issues, privatization will not be successful, said Khatiwada. He said that at the same time there is a need to develop the entrepreneurship skills of our business people in this competitive age.

The problems the government is facing at present as to privatization are procedural delays, inability in conducting privatization transactions efficiently, lack of political commitment, among others.

At the same function, secretary Bhanu Prasad Acharya of the Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Supplies had presented a paper on Private Sector Development. Acharya dwelled upon the government's initiatives for private sector development in Nepal, policy announcements as to industrial, tax, labor, among others.