Friday, July 9, 2010

NTIS 2010 & Comparative Advantage II

Jainendra Jeevan dissects some parts of the recently released Nepal Trade Integration Strategy (NTIS) 2010. For my take on the same issue, see this blog post. I focused on the technical part of the report and how it failed to look into comparative advantage of Nepali goods. Jeevan also looks into the same issue but delves into product-level comparative/alternative analysis. A good read!

He is a little bit more pessimistic than I am.
Well that is a different story; coming back to CA, lack of vision and political will along with weak administrative structure have resulted in poor implementation of all agricultural plans and programs so far, including the ‘20-year Agricultural Perspective Plan’ (APP). Therefore, in all likeliness, NTIS 2010 too will meet the fate of APP as capabilities and intention of politicians and bureaucrats haven’t changed any. Therefore, investing single-mindedly on products that have natural competitiveness and fixed cost advantages and on infrastructure and social sectors like education, health and food security should be our focus as diverting resources (both public and private) elsewhere is simply a misuse of the scarce means.