Japanese professor Hirono's advices to Nepal.

Prepare a long term vision first.
Interviewed by Yogesh Pokhrel.

Professor Ryokichi Hirono is the Professor Emeritus at the Keikei University, Japan. He holds various public positions at home and abroad, including membership on the central Environment Council of Tokyo, Japan, the International and Editorial Advisory Board of the Singapore Economic Review, and the Journal of Human Development, New York.

 Besides, he is also associated with various foundations and research institutes in Japan and overseas. Prof. Hirono has been active in assisting the work of many international organisations as expert and consultant and now serving as senior programme advisor at the United Nations University. Yogesh Pokharel of The Rising Nepal had an opportunity to talk to Prof Hirono on various issues of his expertise including economic, development, policy making and environment among others during his recent visit to Nepal. Excerpts:

• Nepal and Japan share good friendly relations for the past several decades. What sorts of supoorts do you think that Japan will extend to Nepal in the upcoming years?   First of all, it is the Nepali people who should decide what they need. They should be clear where they will head their nation towards. Unless and until they start making their country, help themselves for ushering in development and prosperity, nobody from outside will support them. And I have done it very nicely. Whenever I go to any part of the world, my first work will be to encourage themselves to do something by themselves. If you stand on yourselves, other people will help you. And if you don't help yourself other people will not help you. So this is very important for the people of Nepal and the government to make the people help themselves.

• What is your sector of support from Japan if Nepali people really start building new Nepal?  The first and foremost thing is the political stability. If there is no political stability, it is difficult to get proper support from outside. So, the political parties and all stakeholders should come together to build their nation, their economy , their infrastructure and information technology. There are three ways to help any country. First is financial assistance. The next is technical assistance and the last is knowledge.

• What would be the sectors of foreign direct investment (FDI) of Japanese people and government in Nepal if the country gained political stability as you wished shortly?  Tourism, hydro-power and agriculture are the major potential sectors that have comparatively high advantage in Nepal. The natural beauty of this country can lure hundreds of thousands of people every year. Similarly, there is an ample opportunity to develop hydro-power projects from the rivers of Nepal to generate electricity. The agriculture is another highly potential sector that has not been reaped at its best.

• What do you think what Nepal should do to reap benefits from aforementioned potential sector?
   Market economic policy is the basic need of any economy to thrive. Similarly, you need to have a long term vision where you actually want to go, lead the country. Singapore has Vision 2020. Malaysia has Vision 2020. Thailand has Vision 2030. Similarly, I have been asking the government and people of Nepal why not make Nepal's Vision 2030 or something of its sort that provides a roadmap to the country and people know what the country will be going to achieve in what time. It will compel the entire people, businessman, politicians to set some goal on their own.

• As an economist what do you see the strength of Nepal's economy?
   Nepal is really rich in human resources compared to other countries in the Asia. The human resource must be used in the nation building process.

• You often come to Nepal and meet with high level government officials, private sector, economists and politicians. What sort of advise do you provide them? Law and order is the basic need of anything. If there is political stability and good law and order situation, the country will certainly move towards economic development.

• You are quite familiar about Nepal and its strengths and weakness. What do you suggest the political parties, business people and government officials to focus on for Nepal's economic development?In the present world of the 21st century, the public-private partnership is the best model of achieving desired economic development. Governments in today's world are running in deficit. So, the government needs to bring in private sector into the development sector. The private sector has technology, capacity and good managerial skills.

• You said that the public-private partnership is the best model to develop the country. However our private sector is still lacking sufficient finance, technology and management capacity to run large scale projects. What do you say? No, no. Don't underestimate the private sector. Private sector has management capacity, technology and finance. It is the government to provide basic needs of the infrastructure to creative conducive environment to the private sector's investment. If the government wants private  sector's investment in infrastructure development, the government should call them.

• You said that Nepal has tremendous potential in hydro-power generation.  However, the Japanese investors have not shown interest in the hydropower  development of Nepal Why?
  No, they are interested. The problem is political instability. If there is risk, no investors come. So the basic requirement is political stability. The foreign investors go where there is political stability, has big market potential and good return.

• Do you have any specific programme to reduce the adverse impact of the solid waste of Kathmandu Valley?Yes we are working on a pilot programme in Shankhu. If it goes well enough, it might be replicated in other parts of the country.