Nepal project 367-0249 · 1987 · private sector competitiveness

The prospects for increasing the scope of privatization under the Government of Nepal's (GON) current Five-Year Plan are assessed. An initial section limits the scope of the study to public enterprises (as distinct from public services and the trading sector) and defines privatization as the sale of at least 51% of the outstanding equity capital from government or parastatal entities to the private sector, along with the transfer of management. The study then describes the creation of public enterprises over the past 30 plus years and the current privatization situation, the manufacturing sector receiving primary attention. There follow brief descriptions of the operations and status of five government-owned businesses - Balaju Yantra Shala (an engineering service and training center), the Butwal Spinning Mill, the Janakpur Cigarette Factory, the Nepal Oil Corporation, and Rastriya Beema Sansthan (the national insurance company) - with a view to determining the extent to which each still belongs in the public sector. Statutory and financial constraints on privatization and possible GON policy constraints are then examined. A final section presents detailed conclusions and recomm

Source: DEC abstract, PN-AAZ-557 (1987). The source's own text.