Better done than said they say, but it is reverse in Nepalese context. Be it the leaders of Political parties or the one heading the nation and his team, we have been promised to the limits but never delivered. Incapability or the lack of willingness whatever may the reason be, its crystal clear that we have been fooled around for some decades now. We have come through several revolutionary changes surpassing those we thought were hindrance to the growth of the nation, and experienced the governance of every political ideologies prevalent but could never make the breakthrough. And when we thought we were about to make it despite the political instability and frequent changes in government, we had to suffer two huge setbacks in recent decades. The first one being the civil war labelled People’s war by Maoists in 90s for ten long years. The historic people’s movement did end the deep rooted monarchy and political parties agreed to draft the constitution through elective Constitution assembly, but deadlock seems to be never ending. The other setback being recent devastating earthquake have added to the woes taking lives of around 9000 people, making tens of thousands homeless and loss of major urban infrastructures.
One doesn’t need to go long back flipping the history books to notice where we stood few decades back. In fact lots of developed nations in and around South Asia and South East Asia now were far behind us in many aspects then. The turnaround they have managed in past few decades is really exemplary to nation like us still aspiring to take a leap towards economic development. Nepalese economy in the past decade is growing much slower with highest growth rate being around 6% per annum and averaging below 5% in past decade. The Current GDP is around $20 billion and is more or less stagnant as increment is very steady. So what are we lacking? Is it the governance that do not come up with the concrete plan to get the things done? Is it the implementation part? Are we erroneous in the fundamentals itself?
The ever rising unemployment rate is the result of fractional economic activities undergone in the country. Be it for the education or as a labor force, huge portion of active population flee elsewhere. Why are we not able to convince our people to find their destiny in their home? Are we creating the nation where no further generation would love to be a part of? They are bound to leave to earn their living. And those who leave for the further studies will hardly come back, not necessarily they do not want to but because they are unable to figure their future out here.
In this current scenario, until and unless the people are convinced that they can actually do something in their home to earn their living and do something for the betterment of the children, the trend will continue. And as I already stated, we have been promised to the limits and never delivered, none is ready to have faith in the idea that things will change. We are struggling to attract the foreign investor, the very few which were here they are leaving us finding it difficult to do business in Nepal, the recent example being KFC. The longer we take to figure out the problem in us and work on solving it, worsening the situation will be. Every country have their own culture, practices and unique ways of getting the things done, just that we have our own. Foreign investor investing in Nepal is just the bonus, can’t we do something on our own to drive our economy that we have to rely on foreign grants and loans every year?
The growing economy is the reflection of plenty of economic activities in the country. More the entrepreneurial activity within the boundaries, more will be the economic activities thus leading to prosperous economy. Entrepreneurs are national assets to be cultivated and motivated not just because they come up with the new enterprise but can change the way we live and work. If successful, they’ll not just create wealth out of their business but also create jobs and the conditions for a prosperous society helping maintain the living standard. In the situation like ours where economic activity is very low entrepreneurship is key to foster the activities which not just help create demand but also creates employment opportunities which can produce a cascading effect or virtuous circle in the economy. The stimulation of related businesses or sectors that support the new venture add to further economic development. For example, when a new resort or a Hotel with very good facilities is ventured the travel agencies and transportation service provider will come up with new, better and improved ideas and facilities, and even new players can enter into the market as a result of establishment of new resort. Similarly, future development efforts in underdeveloped countries will require robust logistics support, capital investment from buildings to paper clips and a qualified workforce.
The ultimate goal of every new venture is to make money. Existing businesses may remain confined to the scope of existing markets and very few players try new things. Not necessarily every nascent entrepreneurs try new and improved offerings, products or technologies. But even if very few of them try to be innovative, they will be able to capture the new segment of the markets and thus new wealth will be created. Additionally, the cascading effect of increased employment and higher earnings contribute to better national income in form of higher tax revenue and higher government spending. This revenue can be used by the government to invest in other, struggling sectors and human capital.
Entrepreneurship could change the game of living through small tasks. Not necessarily entrepreneurship should make wealth. It could just be a catalyst for wealth generation of the people and nation. Living in Nepal, where we arguably have to give it all to get the basics of living a small act of entrepreneurship in society could actually change the living of community and in turn help the nation. For example, most of the rural areas in the Nepal have abundance of drinking water but they have problem in availability. I.e. fetching. We are blessed with the clean, hygienic and natural drinking water but people are bound to spent hours fetching them. What if someone could come up with the idea and vision to make it readily available for the people just in and around their residence? It could not only help make their life easier but also they could use their saved time in the productive sector and help the national economy itself. A village with 50 households could save 50 man hours a day at least and could invest those time elsewhere.
Some famous entrepreneurs around the world have been actively helping in community based works. Bill Gates for example gives certain portion of his earning to finance education and public health sector. This helps for the betterment of the community, society and nation itself. Overall prosperity of the nation is not possible just through one prosperous sector.
But again regulation plays a major role as everything should be nurtured and taken well care of. Unregulated entrepreneurship may lead to unwanted social outcomes including unfair market practices, pervasive corruption, financial crisis and even criminal activity. Paradoxically, a significantly high number of entrepreneurs may lead to fierce competition and loss of career choices for individuals. With too many entrepreneurs, levels of aspirations usually rise. A strong governing and regulating body for all these would be odor in gold but that’s what we have been lacking since years.
Entrepreneurship and economic development has important inputs and inferences for policy makers, development institutes, business owners and B Schools. If we understand the benefits and drawbacks, a balanced approach to nurturing entrepreneurship will definitely result in a positive impact on economy and society. One of the many ways to take Nepalese economy leaping forward would be fostering the entrepreneurial activities in the country. Guiding, mentoring and motivating entrepreneurs and supporting them in every possible aspect would help the aspiring business owners live the life of their dream enabling many jobless youths in their ventures and creating wealth for them as well as nation. This is not a onetime activity as it just sets the platform and culture for more other to follow the same path. And most importantly it could just end the national parasitism and dependencies on foreign grants and debts.
Inkedtexts 