Yak Tales and Takes

    Photo: Jeffrey Surianto  With every change in government, often several times, during the tenure of a relatively longer lived government, any number of revival, rescue, and resurgence plans for the National Carrier have been put forward. Now, with a new government that could potentially complete its mandated five-year term; the first in generational memory, talk is rife about what direction any plan for Nepal's venerable and mismanaged National Carrier should take. In fact, the newly appointed Executive Chairman is on record saying he would work to make the carrier debt-free in three years. Whether this is a necessary or even desirable outcome is debatable, but for now it is the only plan on the table. As with many Government of Nepal owned entities, the National Carrier is severely under capitalized, poorly managed with a disproportionate debt-equity ratio stemming from GON guaranteed debts and loud scandals, and the GON as owner has exercised little or zero oversigh...

 Just to be clear. The new Pokhara Regional International Airport, whatever that means, should never have been built. An eight lane Express-way replete with tunnels et al, linking Pokhara to the newly built Bhairahawa International Airport would have served everyone, including the Nepali economy, much better. That the Chinese stuffed this project down the Government of Nepal’s throat is no secret and much will be said and written about that modus operandi well into the future. Which brings us to Bhairahawa International. That the Asian Development Bank approved loans based on assumptions about concessions that India would make to show their neighborliness is going to be taught in classrooms for a long time. So, now that we have them, what do we do with them? Two spanking new airports and no international flights to anywhere. One could say, “Let’s go look at the business plans again”. But I think if these existed someone would have dusted them off and taken a look by now. Or we co...

Why stop at a ‘Visit Nepal Decade’? Why not a set aside a ‘Decade for Nepal’? While the VND is a welcome move, much needs to be done to make it a reality. Especially challenging will be securing multi-partisan support. And on this hinge the dream. If dreams are all it takes why not conjure up a Decade for Nepal? A decade in which we can aim not just for a USD 7.5 billion in revenue from tourism but in which we can aim to take our GDP to quarter of a trillion United States Dollars. Things are happening around the world, in our own neighborhood, and indeed in Nepal itself that could make all things align for something like this to happen. Companies are moving away from China. They have not all left already but, increasingly, in boardrooms around the world, the refrain is ‘we are not putting any more investment into China,’ and the investors of those companies and their consumers agree. The world’s factory floor of the last sixty years does not look so enticing anymore. This is a re...