Kathmandu: A study report prepared by the Federation of Nepalese Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FNCCI) with support from the International Financial Corporation (IFC) shows that the share of the private sector in Nepal’s GDP is 81.55 percent. The report was prepared with the cooperation of the National Statistics Office.
Minister for Industry, Commerce and Supplies Ramesh Rijal launched the report amid a program on Thursday. On the occasion, he said the report reflects the status of the private sector in the country’s economy and thanked FNCCI and IFC for preparing it.
The private sector’s contribution to the GDP in 2012/13 was 86.67 percent. The report shows that the private sector’s contribution has decreased due to the contraction in the economy due to the Covid-19 pandemic, earthquake among other reasons.
The report shows that the government’s investment has gone up while the contribution of the private sector has diminished during the post-earthquake and pandemic period. According to the report, the private sector companies have expanded 32 times in the national economy in the last 30 years. There were a total 28,660 industries in 1983 and the number of enterprises increased by 30 times and reached 923,356 in 2018.
The private sector is also at the forefront in terms of employment creation. It occupies 85.6 percent of total employment, providing 57 percent employment in agriculture, forest and fisheries sector, and 12.5 percent in the wholesale and retail trade and vehicle repair sector, FNCCI president Chandra Prasad Dhakal said. According to him, the private sector has provided around 5.5 million jobs while the government provides 427 thousand jobs.
The FNCCI president underscored the need for structural reforms for the private sector to work in full capacity. He also stressed on the need of the government to increase the capital expenditure and suggested that the government should prioritize expansion of investment areas, sustainable development, private-public partnership, among others in the budget for the upcoming fiscal year 2023/24.
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