November 2: A World Bank report has stated that Nepal should shift from remittance and consumption-based economy to investment and productivity-led growth in order to become a middle-income country by 2030.

Releasing the report entitled ‘Nepal Development Update’ in Kathmandu on Thursday (November 1), the World Bank said that the government target to achieve 10 percent growth in investment by 2021 is possible with growth driven by production.

According to the report, the economic growth of the country stood at 6.3 percent in the Fiscal Year 2017/2018 despite less favorable monsoon.

Speaking at the report launch, Finance Minister Yuba Raj Khatiwada said that Nepal should achieve a sustained economic growth of more than seven percent to achieve the target of transforming the country into middle-income country with per capita income of at least USD 5,000 by 2030.

“A growth rate of seven percent could be enough for Nepal to graduate into a developing country. But, the growth rate of seven percent is not enough for becoming a middle-income country within the period,” he said, stressing on the need to enhance productivity of capital and labour, better use of technology, better management of companies and improving industrial relations for unlocking the country's growth potential.

Nepal aims to graduate into a developing country by 2022 and to a middle-income country by 2030. He further added that the private sector should play a crucial role for achieving these targets.

Similarly, Qimiao Fan, World Bank’s country director for Bangladesh, Bhutan and Nepal, said the private sector investment is a must to generate necessary resources needed for transforming the country into middle-income country by 2030.

“The country must ensure political and macro-economic stability, improve quality of infrastructure, and create transparent and predictable legal policy and environment to attract private sector investment and foreign direct investment,” Qimiao said.

Meanwhile, Suraj Vaidya, president of Vaidya's Organization of Industries, said that the private sector is more concerned about the implementation of laws and policies than their formulation as many laws are not implemented.