To raise the pride and prestige of the nation and the people, the nation should be economically vibrant and militarily powerful. If we cannot empower our military, the nation should declare a zone of peace alike Switzerland. The focus of the political parties, their leaders and leaders in government should be economically empowering the nation.

Nepal is sandwiched between two giant and powerful nations, India and China. We have no choice except to maintain balanced relations with the two neighbors, however, the two neighbors have different attitudes towards their small neighbors. China, an emerging superpower, wants to make rich its neighbors so that they can consume its products, on the other hand, the Indo-West strategy is to keep Nepal like weak and poor country a permanently poor so that the poverty-ridden countries will bow down to them and those powerful countries can continue their dominance forever.

Prime Minister K.P. Sharma Oli, after a long wait from India for an invitation to visit there, has finally decided to pay a visit to China. The Nepali officials are preparing the talks agenda and the most important agenda is whether to accept the projects under BRI or not. The Nepali Congress wants the introduction of the projects under BRI should be on grant, whereas, the UML wants the projects should be under the soft loan. However, the government seems under strong pressure from the Indo-West powers for not accepting the BRI, PM Oli is in a dilemma.

How Indians are treating us, is open to all. These days, India has curtailed importing the cement produced in Nepal. Nepali entrepreneurs were also exporting shoes to India. That has also been stopped. Nepal is demanding new air routes and operation of the Instrumental Landing System (ILS) already installed at the Bhairahawa International Airport, but there is no response from the Indian side. Understandably, the Indian intention is to keep Nepal permanently poor and finally either bring Nepal under the India-protected nation or even annex the country by investing in the political leaders.

To fight against such a foreign strategy, Nepal should focus on making its economy strong. First of all, we should focus on establishing industries substituting foreign products by giving special incentives to the investors. Investment should be made in reservoir-based multiple hydropower projects such as Budhi Gandaki by ourselves. Nepal’s water should be utilized at a maximum level. These are the bases for the economic development of the nation. If we become rich, if our income is secured, our political parties don’t need to take money from the Indians either for election or for other reasons. This is the main mantra for Nepal. We must operate the Nepal Airlines directly linking different foreign destinations and not to forget, it is obvious to construct the proposed Nijgadh International Airport, a game changer of the Nepali economy.

Source : https://www.peoplesreview.com.np/2024/11/20/economic-strategy/