(Source: www.horsepower.ph)

The production sector of Nepal has been going downhill for decades. The closure of important factories and production houses such as the Bansbari Leather & Shoe Factory, Biratnagar Jute Mill, Janakpur Cigarette Factory and others from two decades earlier to today’s low energy production can only have negative impacts. The results are low jobs, low income and low job security that lead to around 1500 youths to leave the country every day for “Opportunities”. Most of them are low-waged and uneducated workers forced to work overtime with no holidays nor appropriate compensations all around the year. 

The current scenario of industrial sector is even more worrying and it needs a change. The industrial sector in Nepal contributes only 14% to the national GDP and employs 3% of the economically active population (Source: CIA Fact Book 2015). If Nepal wants to gain significant strides in economic development, the figures must increase. The number of industries must rise and so must their contribution. One significant step that should be taken is the development of entrepreneurship. Entrepreneurship is the ultimate answer to the questions related to production and opportunity.

 (Source: www.theonwardupwardjourney.com)

A force of change

An entrepreneur is a problem-solver, a trend-observer and a trendsetter performing in a very sustainable way. For example, the rising garbage and waste of Kathmandu was posing a threat to environment, health and sanitation, and entrepreneurs came up with the answer to this by using compost fertilizers; companies like Bio Comp Pvt. Ltd. processes garbage to form organic fertilizers for crops in Nepal. This is an example where, literally, dirt is transformed into gold. Nepal faces problems in all sectors and entrepreneurs develop new products, services and technologies that address the problems and increase the productivity of all sectors. From Henry Ford’s assembly line technique that revolutionized the auto-industry to today’s social media revolution by Mark Zuckerberg has gifted us with new industries and new markets. Innovation is the process of creating something new that brings a significant positive change. The entrepreneur is the starter of this change. 

                (Source: www.i.huffpost.com)

 God of employment

Entrepreneurs create jobs. Small and medium sized enterprises are the sources of jobs for more than half of the private sector employees in the USA (Source: Entrepreneurship successfully launching new ventures Bruce R. Barringer, R. Duane Ireland). In Nepal, entrepreneurial firms like Sasto Deal and Red Mud employ 40 individuals each. We can only imagine and roughly calculate massive employment figures if we supported entrepreneurial burst.

 (Source: www.timedotcom.wordpress.com) 

Everything that’s not okay

Now, what is wrong with working abroad? Foreign employment’s remittance does account for 24% of our national GDP and has been responsible for taking millions of Nepalese out of the poverty line (poverty line came down from 42% in 1996 to 25.16% in 2011). BUT, the question remains on how the money is being spent? 49% of it for buying land and property, 25% for repayment of loans, 11 % goes to savings, 13 % for daily consumption and other investment and only 2 % for capital formation (Source: Booming remittance and stagnant economy, Binita Bhattarai (http://nepaknol.net/moga/elibrary/filestore/1/6/0_3ee3b93fd9f954a/160_f3884392c0864e5.pdf)). With only 2% going for capital formation and majority going for household properties, we can guess remittance isn’t helping either.  If the investments in household properties were transferred to enterprises, it would pave a way towards a self-sufficient economy characterized by increased domestic production. We then wouldn’t have to lose our precious human resources to foreign lands in the name of ‘opportunity’.

 (Source: www.beyonddracula.com)

 A step at a time

Nepal needs to strive for global integration through trade by facilitating entrepreneurial bursts. The first step we can take is by keeping entrepreneurship in education courses, at the policy-making level and more importantly, by supporting an entrepreneurial ecosystem to exploit the tremendous potential of enterprises in areas such as energy, agriculture and tourism. The most important reason why Nepal really needs entrepreneurs is to lead the nation towards sufficiency and prosperity. Now it’s time for entrepreneurial minds to be the catalyst for change.