The 5th of September, 2013 marked an important milestone in the  economic history of Nepal when five former prime minsters of Nepal signed in a declaration to work together to take Nepal to economic prosperity. Sher Bahadur Deuba from Nepali Congress, Puspa Kamal Dahal and Dr Baburam Bhattarai from UCPN (Maoist) and, Jhalanath Khanal and Madhav Kumar Nepal from CPN-UML signed a twelve-point commitment that, among others, included promises of refraining from organizing strikes and bandhs,  pursuing the policy of free-market economy that gives adequate room to private sector to lead the endeavour of economic growth of Nepal and attracting foreign direct investment in cardinal real and infrastructure sectors of the economy.

 

As an event, it was district in a sense that for the first time in Nepal's history, five former prime minsters (out of  them two are also the incumbent chiefs of major politcal parties of the country) had come together to address a summit meeting solely meant to discuss the possible economic revolution in the country. The lack of poltical commitment and utter apathy of the political leadership towards the economic woes are often blamed for Nepal's underdevelopment, loss of direction and all-engrossing pessimism vis-à-vis growth prospect. At this jucture of time, it was an important development  that  a fowrward looking  political commitment came from the topmost political leadrship of the country. The joint efforts of Birgunj Chamber of Commerce and New Business Age Pvt Ltd made this historic summit and also the commitment possible.

 

The deliberations of the leaders indicated that there is a lot of ground among the major political parties for creating a common economic agenda that cuts across the party lines. Each leader participated in the event appeared equally concerned and restless to begin a meaningful process of economic growth and development, sooner than later. There was agreement among the leaders that the contentious political issues  are by now largely resolved, next prime unfinished agenda is the economic progress, and the goal was well-being of the Nepali and prosperity Nepal.

 

The summit also brought some important areas to fore that needed to be furhter worked-out among the politcal forces. While Dahal emphasized on dismantling 'feudal and exploitative' economic structure to make Nepal a 'self-sustaining' economy, Deuba unequivocally advocated for 'integrating' Nepali economy to the global one by adopting 'free-market, liberalization and privatization' policies. Similar differences were also evident with regard to exacting social justice and distributive equity from the national wealth.

 

Such differences are but natural in a the pluralistic society. Only agreemnet among the parties required was that any mechanism of redistribution of wealth should be rule-based than coercive, it should uphold the private property rights and must be transparent. Only democratic dispensation can ensure these apects of economic justice. Preconditon for econmic growth for now is that all decisive political forces of Nepal should first unconditionally believe in democracy and act according to its values and norms.

 

It is indeed a very good development for a commitment to have come. But it is only a piece of paper until the signatories of it put their hearts to honestly respect what they have committed and use their minds to make the scribbling a reality in the field. And, things are easier said than done. As the country now gears up for the Constituent Assembly elections, such honesty and urgency can easily be reflected if these leaders could incorporate their commitments in their respective election mainifestoes. If the spirit and laguage of the commitmnett can uniformly be reflected in these mainifestoes, that would prove the true concern of Nepal's prosperity in our leaders.