Kathmandu April 30.

Nepal Chamber of Commerce (NCC) has drawn the government’s attention to the need of creating environment conducive for self-employment and providing job opportunities to the citizens returning from abroad employment due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. The NCC delegation made this suggestion to the government in a meeting with Minister for Agriculture and Livestock Development, Ghanashyam Bhusal, here on Wednesday. It urged the Minister to address the impact of the pandemic in the agriculture sector through provisions that help create employment opportunities within the country. NCC has pointed out the need of development of enterprises based on agriculture, forest, medicinal herbs as well as of ensuring the market for the related products. For this, it suggested making policy arrangements for collaboration between the private sector and the local governments. The Chamber of Commerce stressed on adopting policy of engaging the youths, returning from foreign employment, in agriculture and of utilisation of their skills and knowledge. It suggested a change in the existing agricultural system to make the country self-sufficient in agriculture and consolidate the economy for fulfilling the government’s objective of ‘Prosperous Nepal, Happy Nepali.’ Pointing out the need of a national level integrated information management system in agriculture sector, NCC suggested the Ministry of Agriculture to determine the production goals for the next five years separately for the staple crops like rice, wheat, maize and other indigenous cereals; vegetables and fruits. It also laid emphasis on modernisation, collectivisation, commercialisation, mechanisation and marketization of agriculture as well as on new research for boosting productivity and production. The NCC urged the government to provide concessional loans and ease the loan disbursement process for starting agriculture business as well as to provide fertiliser, seed and other agricultural input to farmers at an affordable rate and in easy manner. On the occasion, Minister Bhusal said the suggestions given by the private sector would be addressed through the government’s policy and programme and its annual budget.