Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB), the central bank of Nepal, Governor Maha Prasad Adhikari on Tuesday called for higher investments from India to overcome the challenges posed by the COVID-19 crisis.
Addressing a virtual roundtable on 'managing working capital in Nepal and India' organised by the PHD Chamber of Commerce and Industry (PHDCCI), Adhikari said working capital is crucially important to ensure sustained recovery in the economy.
He (Adhikari) encouraged the investment from India and ensured the borrowers loans on working capital be provided at reasonable interest rates, according to a statement released by the PHD Chamber of Commerce and Industry after the meeting.
"In the post-pandemic times, the unprecedented crisis is yet not completely over as the low demand, under-utilised industrial potential and liquidity crunch are posing serious challenges to the industry," said Amb K V Rajan, Chair, India-Nepal Centre, PHDCCI & India's Former Ambassador to Nepal.
"In particular, industry in Nepal is facing it acutely and this initiative is meant to voice the concerns of the industry for timely policy interventions to ease the situation for doing business," Rajan said while addressing the virtual roundtable.
The PHDCCI hosted the meeting in association with India-Nepal Centre (INC), the Confederation of Nepalese Industries (CNI), and Nepal SBI Bank Ltd (NSBL).
Speaking at the event PHDCCI President Pradeep Multani said while the world is self-assured to see a sort of re-set, it is the time for the government and industry to reckon the urgency of figuring out their immediate priorities, including on supporting the Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) and Exports, the backbones of the economy.
"A change in approach is much needed at this point of time, before the fundamentals of the world order go into reset mode, there should be a determination to revive the MSMEs and industries at large to support the much-needed demand factor of the economy with enabling a supportive institutional financial mechanism for managing working capital needs. This is the time for proactive collective action to come out of the trying time with a blueprint for revival of the economy," Multani said.
( With inputs from ANI )
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