Title: Time for economic revolution

Time for economic revolution - Bhattarai

Kantipur Report

KATHMANDU, Sept 2 - Finance Minister and senior Maoist leader Dr Baburam Bhatarai on Tuesday said that the government would give priority to economic transformation along with the political transition.
Saying that time has come for the economic revolution in the country, Minister Bhattarai said that the Maoists took to armed political movement as it was impossible to bring economic revolution without wiping out feudalism.

Addressing the Economic Summit 2008 organised by the Confederation of Nepalese Industries (CNI) in the capital today, Bhattarai, who is one of the designers of the decade long insurgency, said that the political revolution has not been completed as the feudal structure is yet to be uprooted notwithstanding the elimination feudalism.

�We have not been able to get remarkable achievement in past decades,� Bhattarai said, and added, �The statistics shows that the economic growth rate was 4.8 per cent in the eighties while only 4.9 per cent in nineties.� Minister Bhattarai questioned if 0.1 per cent growth rate could be taken for an achievement.

The finance minister opined that it was important to develop agriculture sector rapidly for the economic revolution. He also said that rapid economic growth was possible only after unified development of hydropower, tourism, infrastructure, health and education, along with agriculture.

Bhattarai compared the economic growth to a kangaroo jump and said it will not be like that of a frog leap if the path of public-private partnership model is adopted.

Expressing his dissatisfaction over the structure of the newly formed government, he dubbed it a �conflated government� and added it was compulsion however.

Dr Bhattarai also opined it is possible to attain double digit growth in the economic development. �If desire is strong, everything becomes possible to achieve,� he said.

In the programme, CNI Chairman Binod Choudhary suggested the government to create conducive environment for investment and said that cheesy programmes must not be encouraged for cheap popularity.

Meanwhile, the summit discussed issues related to agriculture, forest, tourism, electricity, health, and foreign employment among others.

The summit that kicked off on Monday aiming to discuss the national goal of enabling every Nepali to earn Rs 12,000 a month concluded in the capital today. ...