Hi guys, I guess there have been various posts in Sajha.com about development/politics etc in Nepal. I am not sure how beneficial this thread will be but still wanted to start this tread so that we Nepalese can brainstorm and find new ideas that we can use for the development of our country ( coz our leaders and policy makers are busy abusing their power  )

So guys put your bright ideas here, like how to control corruption, find ways to increase exports, bring foreign investment, how to improve literacy, create awareness in public, and make people patriotic.

All this sounds too good from guys who have left their country and are staying abroad to fulfill their personal needs/goals. But still I think there are people who can and will do something for country and maybe it is one of us.
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So to begin with here is my idea:

As we all know Nepal is rich in water resources and has very high potential of generating electricity from its step rivers (again same old idea). My idea is to bring foreign investors to generate electricity and sell it to India. As we all know India is one of the emerging super powers and it will definitely need electricity to maintain its growth rate.

It will be total investment by the foreign company and the only thing they will be using will be our fast rivers. They can sell it at their rate; anywhere they want to and pay us small fraction for using our rivers and our land. Well the idea behind these projects is that neither do we have enough money nor enough technical skill to develop such project, may be not even in next 50 years. All our water resources are going waste. So why not make something, may be little less than what we can make had we done it ourselves.

Any comment/weak point etc in my idea is highly appreciated : D

Shame there is no response to this thread !!
Seems people are more intrested watching Hindi Movie online


Have a great weekend!

Hi I like your idea and would also like to comment "All this sounds too good from guys who have left their country and are staying abroad to fulfill their personal needs/goals". You can't blame 'em for leaving the country. Its hard to get a job even if you are qualified. If there were opportunities then they won't have to leave, would they?

About the water resources...yes, I did check out some sites where people are generating electricity. You could do do some searching online regarding this. I am sure if people wants to, they can come up with their own product instead of giving it to india (by the way...most of the water resources are controlled by india anyway)...and the govt have cancelled so many projects that would produce electricity..So..yes..if the govt invest money and try to work it out..they can....and in country like ours where people can spend Rs.10,000 for shoes can of course get some money...its just that people need to get together.

By the way, I hope that we get the help of china to build up our country rather than india. They just want us to be dependent upon them for each and every single thing. I think I've said enough for now.

Here is another idea...stop sending money that we raise from Temple Pashupatinath to India...can we do that??

Hmmm....

Just couldn't help it...you might wanna check out this link as well..

http://www.nepalnews.com.np/contents/englishweekly/spotlight/2004/oct/oct08/coverstory.htm

While different national and foreign organizations seem to be tapping into your idea of FDI in Hydropower development, there still are various factors that have huge impact hindering the contineous flow of foreign investment.
Hydropower projects comprise of large civil work components which need huge capital upfront. On top of that, the period from when the financial deal is closed to when the actual revenue is generated is relatively very long (any where from 5 to 15 years; given the project runs sooth) compare to other potential investment market, such as thermal plants where the start up cost is very less and energy is generated quickly. Add the political unstability and other project specific risks such as hydrological risk to the risk basket; the result is skeptic investors.
This is what I believe are a fraction of issues that influence the FDI in a country like Nepal.
Now the issue is what could be done to ensure the investors that their investment would have greater protecting and competetive returns.

Organzation such as IPPAN and AEPCNepal have been very involved and dynamic in these issues.

But my question is how much of a factor could these things contribute towards the development of the nation?

P.S. Genuine topic..........

GP: You say government is not the solution but again you mention that there has to be peace and all....to achieve all those you need someone to govern thats where the government will comes into play. You need to have government who is willing to develop the country instead of filling their own pocket. Thats the thing about our country, every one wants piece out of it and all we could do is complain...hope someone will put it into action. And again, to get into action one needs to have all the resources and backup...

I wrote: Govt investment is not a solution, but good governance is a solution to current situation in Nepal.

Just a random thought that came into my mind as i was reading the posts. I once had a talk with a top world bank official who had been invited to give a talk when I was in college. Rather than the environmental consequences, he cited the "hold-up" that could result from India once the investment's already been made. In other worlds, given that india is the only potential supplier (transmission over long distances to China would result in enough power loss to render that option useless), it can pay the bare minimum that it wants to pay. A huge project would generate way too much power for nepal's consumption alone, so this uncertainty, exacerbated by india's selfish past behavior was a cause for concern.

How about smaller micro-hydral projects, in whcih the plant can supply back to the grid. If the grid's connected with India, under some sort of agreement, many nepalese power generators could still supply electricity to india and get paid at a competitive rate. The micro-hydral + grid idea has the advantage that there is no one huge sunk-cost that could discourage a single large potential investor. Furthermore, the risks are also minimized. Good topic, btw.

I think after a couple of round of discussion, we will end up in politics. We all know where the main problem lies.

If our system can stop dishonest people grab position and power, we will go forward. Otherwise, flood of innovative ideas will not rescue but stimulate rapid brain drain.

casper: You just hit the nail on the head with "small micro-hydel + mega projects "

I believe there has been numerous projects either on operation or in development stages in both scales.

With the subsidies for projects under 100 Kw community based micro hydel projects have been very effective. Communities such as Dudilabhati Village which is situated at 30 Km from the nearest motorable road at Baglung Bazar has been very effective on raising living standards of people with access of electricity.

On the other hand, The rejuvinated West Seti Hydroproject has gained rapid momentum with the house approval to start the construction.

But at the same time, I wonder if there can a definitive mechanism to go about these developments.

I believe there are a lot of people who are very interested in these issues and want to get involved in sharing knowledge. Although there has been some development but the networking has not reached the required level to spread the message accross the interested community.

Also, I haven't seen any definitive pattern of development on these topics.