KATHMANDU, March 18: Members of academia, business professionals and bureaucrats Friday sat together to discuss ways to address Nepal's unemployment and equip the country's human resources with skills, knowledge and technology so as to find cure to Nepal's chronic brain drain and utilize labor force for growth and development.
In “Industry Academia Meet” organized by Human Resources Society of Nepal and Kathmandu Don Bosco College, the participants raised various problems facing Nepal in terms of job creation and transforming labor force into knowledge resources.
Pratap Pathak, former-secretary of Ministry of Labor and Employment, said it is high time Nepal stopped relying on foreign employment. “Foreign employment does not lead to development. It should be taken only as a bridging strategy, a kind of crisis management tool,” he said. Ghanashyam Lal Das, vice-chancellor of Purbanchal University, shed light on how policy makers and planners have hindered job creation through their inability to manage job-related issues. “Nepal is not a poor country; it is a poorly-managed country. We have failed to properly manage our resources.”
Sugat Ratna Kansakar, managing director of Nepal Airlines Corporation, argued that blaming politics alone won't help. “Democracy is a politically unstable system. We need to move on amidst difficulties with commitment and honesty,” said Kansakar.
The speakers focused on the need to tailor our education in line with the requirements of job markets and industries. They urged the government and private sectors to invest more on infrastructure to create more jobs. The program ended with set of recommendations to all stakeholders to make Nepal's labor force employable both in and outside the country.
Chairman of Kathmandu Don Bosco College, Professor Sriram Bhagut Mathe moderated the function. “This is our attempt to bring to public forum Nepal's human resources problems and find ways to solve them through discussion,” said Madhu Paudel, General Secretary of Human Resources Society Nepal.