वित्तीय क्षेत्रको विकास तथा वित्तीय समावेशीता

 

                                                                                                                                              

नेपाल राष्ट्र बंैक समाचार, वैशाख २०७८, वर्ष ४५ अङ्क ८ मा प्रकाशित

Inclusive Green Finance

Inclusive Green Finance

            *Amish Dhungel

Green Finance

Green Finance refers to initiatives that promote green investments. It means more capital flows to sustainable sectors like renewable energy, clean transportation, sustainable water management, etc. It aims at increasing financial flows to sustainable development priorities that have positive and durable environmental externalities. 

The objective is to generate environmental benefits as part of a strategy to attain inclusive, resilient, and sustainable development. The crux is to achieve sustainable economic growth with better managed environmental and social risks. As such green finance covers a wide range of financial product offerings including banking, investment, and insurance products such as green bonds, green investment funds, climate risk insurance, etc.   

The concept of Green finance gained global attention after the declaration of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals 2015 and the Paris Climate Agreement 2016.  

Financial Inclusion

Financial inclusion is a multi-faceted concept that relates to the access, usage, and quality of financial products and services to households and businesses. It means that individuals and businesses have access to meaningful and affordable financial products and services. It ensures that customers regardless of their geographical location, ethnic, social-cultural, educational, or economic background have access to suitable financial products, ensuring fairness in service delivery, at a reasonable cost.

Financial inclusion has become a favorite buzzword of government and regulators because of the role it plays in reducing poverty, boosting prosperity, and achieving macroeconomic stability. Basically, financial inclusion is measured in terms of access of people and business to a bank account. Having a bank account means that people can save, send, and receive payments and are connected with a wide range of services that the financial industry offers. Such an account serves as a starting point for the users to facilitate day to day living, make use of wide varieties of financial services, make immediate and long-term financial plans, etc.

Inclusive Green Finance (IGF)

Globally, green finance and financial inclusion have been gaining popularity. Nepal also has started to witness green finance practices. Besides these, global attention has been shifting towards developing and adhering to the concept of Inclusive Green Finance (IGF). Before we delve into the concept of IGF, let us go through the following news:

 · In 2017, the seasonal flooding in South Asia affected more than 16 million people, causing death casualties of about 500 people. Amongst others, Nepal, Bangladesh, and India were severely hit displacing many families, causing severe food shortages, etc.

·  The heat wave in India killed 90 people in the summer of 2019. The temperature reached 49 degrees Celsius in the northern part of the country reaching very close to all-time record of 51 degrees Celsius in 2016.

· Recurring landslides and floods caused a big loss of life and properties in the Sindhupalchowk district of Nepal. As many as 74 people lost their lives and 41 people were reported to be missing in the district as per a report on September, 2020.

It is well understood that climate change has been a major cause of extreme weather conditions around the globe. Climate change has been threatening the food supply, forced people to abandon their homes, jeopardizing the health of the victims, etc. In most of these unfortunate events and the news listed above, it is poor and vulnerable people who have to face hardship. And as most of the poor people have a heavy reliance on agriculture for food and income, the harsh climatic condition can be devastating leading to the deepening of poverty.  

With climate change and global warming, the frequency of events such as landslides, flooding, storm, etc, and the magnitude of losses from these are increasing. This has pushed millions of people below poverty lines. Such disasters propagate inequality and poverty, which reinforce each other, creating a vicious cycle whereby the poor population suffers more as they are overexposed; have less capacity to cope and recover. In most of the cases, due to inadequate post-disaster social protection, such population will face a permanent impact on health, job, education; forcing them into poverty traps. As such climate change not only threatens long time effort of the government to reduce poverty but also causes an extra burden on the low-income population.

We can conclude from the above that:

·      Poor countries are more affected by climate-related disasters as they are less prepared and have a poor support system,
·      Mostly the victims of such incidents are people from poor and vulnerable levels, 

·      Victims are pushed back into the poverty trap and there is a high chance that they will be financially excluded

How Inclusive Green Finance (IGF) is gaining momentum

Inclusive Green Finance is a new policy area popularized by Alliance for Financial Inclusion (AFI) member institution to adopt policies, regulation, and national strategies to "mitigate or build resilience to sweeping environmental, health, social and economic effects of the climate change".

IGF combines the concept of green finance and financial inclusion policies to develop integrated inclusive green finance (IGF) policies. It makes use of the financial services and digital finances to mitigate the shocks from climate change, thus enhancing the resilience of the vulnerable population against the climate related economic shocks.

It is no doubt that financially included population are habituated in saving, credit, insurance, making transaction, use of digital channels, etc. The financially included population is better positioned to undue financial shocks. For eg, families with a higher rate of savings can smoothen consumption even after the shock and withstand the increase in food prices. Similarly, access to micro-credit can assist the poor household to enhance resilience via access to fertilizer, improved seeds, etc. Likewise, micro-insurance and weather-based insurance can provide security to poor families. Besides, in the aftermath of the crisis, access to a bank account can enable poor people to reach out for subsidies or grants from the government or donor agencies. Similarly, in the presence of robust digital financial inclusion, post-disaster social payments can be made in no time. A recent example is the use of digital finance by the policymakers to enhance the resilience of the population as against economic distress caused by Covid 19. Similarly, micro-credit, micro-insurance, etc can be made available to the poor population with the usage of Digital Financial Services in no time.

It is understandable that when low income and vulnerable people are financially included, they better prepare themselves to withstand climate-driven events like floods, cyclones, landslides, etc. Besides these, when the bank and financial institutions(BFI) arrange for green finance products like solar powered energy systems, clean stoves, subsidized lending in agriculture and animal husbandry, etc, it will ensure that the bottom of the economic pyramid population is included to ensure green financial inclusion. Thus financial initiatives such as micro-lending, savings, micro-insurance, clean energy lending, green lending, etc that aim to protect the poor and vulnerable population from unwanted environmental and climate change hazards is known as inclusive green finance. In another world, inclusive green finance can also be understood as 'scaling-down' of the green finance initiatives to include the bottom of the economic pyramid.

Besides all these, effective implementation of IGF initiatives will ensure overall financial and microeconomic stability, mitigate the risk of high inflation emanating from climate change, and other environmental risks. 

Framework of Inclusive Green Finance

The concept of green finance and inclusive green finance has also been gaining the attention of the policymakers throughout the world. Though these two concepts are relevant and inter-related to each other, the term green finance caters to the financing needs of large scale green investment, contrary to the inclusive green finance, that advocates for green finance initiatives to include poor people and enhancing their resilience to climate change.

IGF started as a new policy area in September 2017 as Alliance for Financial Inclusion (AFI) member countries adopted the Sharm El Sheikh Accord on Financial Inclusion, Climate Change, and Green Finance. This was further developed as Nadi Action Agenda laying down priority areas for AFI's work on Inclusive Green Finance. The framework aims to guide central banks and other stakeholders towards promoting Inclusive Green Finance. The accords is built upon Maya Declaration that enables AFI member countries to make concrete financial inclusion targets, implement policy changes, and share policy updates on financial inclusion.

IGF is categorized into four types known as the 4P framework which includes promotion, provision, protection, and prevention. Within these the whole range of activities that financial regulators can take under inclusive green finance can be classified.

4P framework on IGF

 

         Promotion

Promotion-related initiatives incentivize the private sector to offer financial products and services for green projects or related climate action activities to the qualified beneficiaries. It includes initiatives such as moral suasion, awareness-raising, capacity building, interagency coordination and collaboration, data collection, etc. For e.g., Bangladesh published a Quarterly report on Green Banking Activities of Banks and Financial Institution and Green Refinance.

   Provision

Provision policies help ensure that qualified beneficiaries avail financial resources for the green projects and other climate-related activities. Such measures involve provisioning of lending quotas, provision of refinancing, creation or investment fund, etc. For e.g., Nepal Rastra Bank has made it mandatory for BFI to lend 10% of their portfolio to energy projects. Similarly, it also has subsidized loans for biogas, waste treatment plants, solar energy, etc.

Protection

Measures such as climate-related insurance and risk management products, credit guarantees, social payments, and other mechanisms are used to reduce potential financial risk. For e.g., the Central Bank of America subsidizes approximately 50% of insurance policies of agricultural climate insurance products. Similarly, Central Bank of Nigeria absorbs 50% of the loss if a small farmer defaults on a loan.

Prevention

Similarly, policies are also adopted to avoid undesirable outcomes by lowering financial, social, and environmental risks. For e.g., the Environmental and Social Risk Management Guidelines issued by the Nepal Rastra Bank, 2018 can be referred to as one of the prevention interventions. The guideline aims to establish the Environmental and Social Risk Management Framework as the standard process for evaluation and integration of environmental and social issues in the functioning of banks and financial institutions (BFIs) and requires BFIs to develop and implement an Environmental and Social Management System (ESMS) consistent with local environmental, social laws and regulation.

  

The guidelines focus on assessing air emissions and air quality, water use and conservation, wastewater and water quality, solid wastes, labor and working conditions, biodiversity and ecosystem services, culture, and natural heritages, etc. Such guidelines have been issued by other countries like Brazil, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Paraguay, etc. 

National Strategies

Besides requiring member institutions to execute various activities under 4P's framework, AFI also emphasizes its member institutions to link their financial inclusion goals with climate change via a national strategy. Such strategies might be incorporated into National Financial Inclusion Strategies or other financial sector strategies.

Most of the AFI member countries have done so, some of them being Fiji, Rwanda.  Similarly, countries like Nepal, Bangladesh, Nigeria, Morocco, etc have planned to link financial inclusion and climate change. For e.g., our neighboring country Bangladesh in its First Strategic Plan (2010--2014) has made a connection between financial inclusion and climate change. It gave due importance to the need for agriculture and SMEs. The second strategic plan (2015-2019) aims to promote socially responsible, inclusive, and environment-friendly finance for sustainable development. As such development of national strategies and the propagating of such strategies in the policies and practices is important.

Conclusion

Climate change can threaten our progress in financial inclusion and other achievements in the financial sector. In quest of developing a resilient system, we need to spearhead the policies and practices to mitigate the impacts of climate change. For a developing country like ours which is at high risk for climate change-induced disasters, with 39.1% of the population still assumed to be outside of the financial channel and 18.7% of the population below the poverty line, it is high time for us to respond with strategies, policies, and regulations to move forward towards inclusive green economies.

As such central banks, supervisors/regulators, and governments should aim in developing a financial system that is resilient and well prepared to absorb climate-related shocks. As guardians of financial stability, it is no doubt that central banks should have more concerns for inclusive green finance. Appropriate policies and proper cooperation with counterparties, regulators/supervisors in other countries, and with global policy-making body like AFI is necessary to achieve IGF.

As an evolving field of study with huge importance, IGF is certain to gain momentum in the future. As such IGF initiatives should be able to garner adequate collaboration and coordination among the stakeholders at the international level, ensure knowledge/experience sharing, capacity building of the authorities, etc. All these will enable us to move towards a resilient financial system for the bottom of the pyramid.

References:

Pictures/graphics credit: AFI

• www.afi-global.org
• Guidelines on Environmental & Social Risk Management (ESRM) 2018, Nepal Rastra Bank
• g]kfndf ljQLo kx'Frsf] l:ylt ;+lIfKt cWoog @)&^, g]kfn /fi6« a}+s
• Sustainable Development Goals | United Nations Agenda 2030‎
•  www.unescap.org

Published in Upahar(Magazine of Economics and Management), Souvenir of Rastriya Banijya Bank Limited, 2077

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Responding With Policy To COVID-19 Crisis

Responding With Policy To COVID-19 Crisis

              

 

The coronavirus pandemic has become a global phenomenon. No country regardless of its size or economic vitality has been able to aloof itself from this. Very few countries which implemented early precautionary measures have been able to minimize insurmountable loss of wealth and human casualties. In this connection, it was indeed a quick maneuver by our state mechanism to realize its possible intensity which forged a timely lockdown. This has been by far the most effective measure to protect the country from possible human casualties. Though on one hand, it has caused some difficulties to the general public, on the other it has saved the country from possible severity of the mass engulfing of the virus. However, prolonged lockdown has put the economy on the verge of recession. The virus will stay with us for a long time until the vaccine arrives, which is no anytime sooner. In this situation, the best thing to do is to continue contemporary preventive measures while also taking precautionary measures to control the damage on the economic front.

 

The IMF predicts the global economy to contract by 3% in 2020 making the current crisis the worst recession since the great depression of the 1930s. The IMF has named this crisis as "The Great Lockdown", because of the global nature of the crisis whose speed and scale of impact is unparallel to any other crisis before and has forced the countries to opt for withdrawing of all social activities through the lockdown. 

 

In response to the crisis, central banks and governments across the globe have introduced various policy measures. Such policy measures are aimed to facilitate the economy to have a V-shaped recovery. In the US the Federal Reserve has approved a $2.2 trillion stimulus package. Similarly, Japan has introduced the largest ever stimulus package worth more than $550 billion of about 10% of its Gross Domestic Product. Many other countries have followed the suit. 

 

Following the pandemic, the IMF, the World Bank, Center Bureau of Statistics, Nepal, etc have estimated the growth rate of Nepal for the current fiscal year to range within 1.5 to 2.5 percent. Though such projection might change depending upon the duration of the crisis, it is obvious that the economy will be hit hard. Given the composition of our GDP, various sectors that contribute to the GDP will be affected in varying intensity. 

 

Sectoral Impact

The structure of the Nepalese economy is primitive akin to that of the developing countries. Nearly more than one-fourth of the GDP is contributed by the primary sector. According to the Economic Survey 2018/19, the contribution to GDP of the Primary, Secondary, and Tertiary sectors account for 27.6%, 14.6%, and 57.9% respectively. 

 

Amongst all the sectors, the agriculture sector is least affected and with some arrangements, the government can control the damage. A major contributor to the agriculture sector is paddy, which will sustain its contribution to a large extent. Further, improvement in the supply chain will ensure the marketability of other Agro-products even in a difficult period. In the secondary sector, the manufacturing is disturbed severely on account of the paucity of workers, disturbances of the supply chain, etc. The construction sector is likely to be moderately affected. Continuing the construction activities of large scale projects will ensure that this sector will help to control the damage.  

 

The contribution of the service sector in the economy of the country is paramount. Here the wholesale and retail trade sector with 14.4% of GDP has the highest share. On account of disruption of the supply chain, diminished purchasing power of self-employed, huge layoff of employees and contract workers this sector will also be moderately affected. Another sector that has been hit hard is the hotel and restaurant sector. It was because of the corona crisis that Visit Nepal 2020 was canceled. The downfall in this sector will also negatively affect other sectors like transportation and communication, earnings of the financial intermediaries, agriculture, aviation, etc. As the COVID crisis prolongs, this area will be affected for a longer period. Even after the lockdown, it will take time for this sector to revive.  

 

Another factor that has a vital role in the functioning of our economy, i.e Remittance will also be severely hit. The total inflow of remittance for last fiscal year was NPR 879 billion which for this year is estimated to be limited within NPR 800 billion. With the major destination country's economy forecasted to be in recession, the fall in remittance will continue in days to come. As such new job opportunities abroad will diminish increasing the return of the workers, escalating the unemployment problem in the country. Dive in remittance and number of outgoing migrant workers will lead to multifold repercussions on the economy of the country; liquidity problems in the banking sector, pressure on forex earning, decrease the overall economic activities, and increase the poverty level and inequality in the country. 

 

 

 

Policy measures adopted

Amidst this crisis, Nepal Rastra Bank has announced policy measures to facilitate the economy. The measures aim to lubricate the functioning of the economy via ensuring liquidity ease, reducing the cost of borrowing, flexible provisioning of the loans and its servicing, enhancement of the refinance package, allowing easy access to supplemental capital, and so on.  

 

Furthermore, the government has the responsibility to manage multifold challenges and prioritize its actions. For this, it has introduced various measures in the recently announced fiscal policy for the upcoming fiscal year. For eg, the budget of the health care sector has been increased by Rs 20 billion reaching Rs 90.69 billion aiming to  strengthen the overall health care infrastructure and support our fight against the pandemic.

 

The policy also emphasizes the agricultural sector with the introduction of some novel ideas. Policies aiming to enhance the infrastructure in the agro sector for robust supply chain management, linking products to the market, storage of products, agro-insurance, land bank, irrigation plants, etc when implemented will modernize our agricultural sector, enhance the level of food security in the country and save our expenses on imports. 

 

Furthermore, the policy aims to absorb the unemployed workforce in the agriculture sector and other sectors by creating employment opportunities, addressing those who have been laid off from their job, including the returnee migrant workers. Touted as labor-friendly, the policy also aims to create employment opportunities via the PM Employment Program, has focused on skill-based training, emphasized on subsidized loan via banks and financial institutions, stringent management of the foreign employees working in Nepal, etc. 

 

Consideration has also been taken in line with the frugality measures, for eg withholding all the additional perks and benefits going to the employees, downsizing the Member of Parliament's fund, etc. The policy looks like one to be adhered to during times of crisis.  Along with all these provisions the recently announced fiscal policy looks promising and optimistic.

 

In a nutshell, the overall policy measures recommended are sound and aim to address the dynamics of the current crisis. However, its real excellence will be reflected in its proper implementation. Similarly, the duration of the crisis will also be another limiting factor that might demand some flexibility in due course of time. As such it is pertinent to ensure that the stated policies are timely implemented in a coordinated and transparent manner so that the damage emanating from the corona pandemic can be contained.

Embracing Digital Finance System Need Of Hour

Embracing Digital Finance System Need Of Hour

Financial inclusion can be defined as a state whereby Individuals and businesses have access to meaningful and affordable financial products and services. It means that customers regardless of their geographical location, ethnic, social-cultural, educational, or economic background have access to suitable financial products while ensuring fairness in service delivery at a reasonable cost.

The popularity of financial inclusion is because of the role it plays in reducing poverty and bringing prosperity. Financial inclusion is generally measured in terms of access of people and business to a bank account. Having a bank account means that people can save, send and receive payments as such people are connected with one of the important parts of life-- banking. Such an account serves as a starting point for the users to facilitate day to day living, make immediate and long-term financial plans, and make use of a wide variety of financial services.

Access to finance at present is not only limited to having a bank account in physical banks. With the use of modern technology in the field of banking and finance, financial services are offered through mobile phones, personal computers, the internet, or via linkage of the card to a digital payment platform known as digital financial services (DFS). For any product offerings to be called DFS, it should enable the users to perform basic banking functions like payments, savings, borrowings, etc making use of the internet, and without having to go to the physical branch location. DFS is a broad terminology and also includes Mobile Financial Services (MFS) which means the use of a mobile phone to access financial service and execute financial transactions.

Financial inclusiveness throughout the globe has been low. The World Bank estimates that around 1.7 billion adults worldwide do not have a basic transaction account. In Nepal, around 60 percent of the population is still said to be outside the coverage of the formal banking channel. Low financial literacy, complex KYC requirement, unequal access to infrastructure, convenience in using informal market tools, lack of trust, and inadequate financial awareness are the reasons for staying outside banking services.

Government of Nepal (GoN) has introduced measures to increase the access of people to financial services. It has planned to open a physical branch of commercial banks in all local levels of the government. With about 81 percent of Nepal's population living in rural areas, the increase in number of banks in local level will increase bankable population. Banking at doorsteps will create convenience for the users which were a matter of privilege some years back.  Similarly, the government has launched an opening bank accounts campaign targeting every citizen. To ensure its effectiveness the process of opening bank accounts has been simplified. Opening the bank account earlier required a copy of citizenship but now can be done just by presenting a copy of the driving license, national identity card. Similarly, such accounts will receive a deposit of Rs. 100 from the bank’s side.

The government has also introduced the 'Digital Nepal' campaign which highlights the role of digital financial services to promote digitization of financial transactions. It recommends increasing the limit of digital transactions, reduce the cost of digital financial transactions, issue of national biometric cards, and introduce telecommunication companies into the payment industry. The government, together with other stakeholders can create an enabling environment to promote digital financial services. For instance, recently Bangladesh introduced the 'Digital Bangladesh' campaign which largely increased financial inclusion. Bangladesh, in 2018 had 47 percent of adults in the financial channel, a 10 percent increase from 2017. Such progress was due to a larger portion of the population having access to MFS. Such stories can also be found in countries like Kenya (mPesa), China( Alipay, Wechat), etc. Our own homegrown MFS providers include e-Sewa, IME pay, sparrow pay, etc. that have been gaining momentum.  

A large unbanked population together with a predominantly cash-based economy has been a constant problem to the Nepali financial system for long. A solution can be the extension of digital financial services throughout the country. With mobile penetration rate greater than 100 percent, declining cost per unit of data, high-speed internet solutions, expansion of physical infrastructure, 50 percent internet penetration rate, the environment is conducive for the expansion of digital financial services. This context is more suitable to popularise mobile financial services. The population base with wide access to mobile and internet can be tapped to open digital wallets which would be game-changing to enhance financial inclusion in Nepal. Licensed mobile financial services providers from Nepal Rastra Bank in the form of PSP’s and PSO’s can tap the unbanked population across the country.

Digital finance is instrumental to ensure broader financial inclusion. Similarly, in contrast to the traditional brick and mortar banking, digital finance is more affordable and convenient.  The major advantage of digital finance comes from its ability to offer product offerings at an affordable price, ensuring interoperability across various service providers. It also enables regulators to easily check the flow of black money or undue financial transactions. Another advantage would be the efficiency factor. The use of innovative digital financial services can have a long-lasting positive impact on banking performance.  

Access to digital finance is likely to boost the gross domestic product of the economy by providing service users with a wide range of digital finance products and services. Under banked groups like SME’s, women, and the population on the bottom of the pyramid will have access to financial services. This will boost aggregate expenditure leading to a positive contribution to GDP and will also contribute to the reduction of the poverty level.

The government should build coordination with concerned stakeholders and create an enabling legal and physical infrastructure to promote digital finance in the country. Making use of the technology to offer existing banking solutions and leveraging the benefit of technology to offer mobile financial services across the country will significantly enhance financial inclusion in the country. Such measures will significantly add to the government’s mission of ‘Digital Nepal’.

(The author is an Assistant Director at Nepal Rastra Bank.)

कोरोनापछिको वैदेशिक रोजगार व्यवस्थापन

कोरोनापछिको वैदेशिक रोजगार व्यवस्थापन 

२०७७ बैशाख, २५

विश्वव्यापी रूपमा अप्रत्याशित किसिमले देखिएको कोरोना महामारीले विश्व अर्थतन्त्रलाई संकटग्रस्त बनाएको छ । कोरोनाले निम्त्याएको संकट बहुआयामिक रहेको र यसले पार्ने प्रभाव सन् १९३० ठूलो आर्थिक मन्दीभन्दा गहिरो हुने विभिन्न अन्तरराष्ट्रिय निकायहरूले आकलन गरेका छन् ।

पर्यटन, उत्पादनमूलक तथा निर्माण क्षेत्र आदिमा उल्लेख्य रोजगारी सृजना तत्कालका लागि सम्भव छैन । यस्तो अवस्थामा मुलुकको कुल गार्हस्थ्य उत्पादनमा ठूलो अंशको योगदान गर्ने कृषिक्षेत्रमा रोजगारी सृजना गर्नुपर्ने हुन्छ ।

अन्तरराष्ट्रिय मुद्राकोष (आईएमएफ) का अनुसार सन् २०१९ मा विश्व अर्थतन्त्रको वृद्धिदर २ दशमलव ९ प्रतिशत रहेकोमा सन् २०२० मा ३ दशमलव शून्य प्रतिशतले ऋणात्मक हुनेछ । विभिन्न भौगोलिक क्षेत्रहरूको तुलनामा दक्षिण एशियाको आर्थिक क्षेत्रमा भने कोरोनाले न्यून प्रभाव पार्ने मूल्यांकन आईएमएफले गरेको छ । अधिकांश मुलुकहरूको अर्थतन्त्र ऋणात्मक रहने तर नेपालमा भने करीब २ दशमलव ८ प्रतिशत वृद्धि भित्र सीमित हुने आकलन विश्व बैंकले अप्रिल, २०२० मा सार्वजनिक गरेको दक्षिण एशियासम्बन्धी प्रतिवेदनमा उल्लेख छ । यद्यपि कोरोना महामारी अझै पनि नियन्त्रणमा नआएको र कहिले नियन्त्रणमा आउँछ भन्ने निश्चित नभएकाले यसले पार्ने असरलाई यकिन गर्ने प्रयास अभैm हतारो हुन्छ । यस्तो अवस्थामा हाम्रो अर्थतन्त्रलाई सकेसम्म कोरोनाको दुष्प्रभावलाई न्यूनीकरण गर्न आवश्यक छ ।

वैदेशिक रोजगारीको अवस्था
आर्थिक वर्ष २०६३/६४ मा वैदेशिक रोजगारीमा जाने नेपालीको कुल संख्या २ लाख थियो भने आव २०७४/७५ मा आइपुग्दा श्रमस्वीकृति लिई वैदेशिक रोजगारीमा जानेको संख्या ५० लाख नाघिसकेको छ । सो अंकमा रोजगारीका लागि भारत गएका नेपालीहरूको लगत नभएको र श्रमस्वीकृति नलिई जानेहरू समेत समावेश नभएकाले वैदेशिक रोजगारीमा गएका नेपालीको संख्या अझ उच्च रहेको अनुमान गर्न सकिन्छ । नेपालले संस्थागत रूपमा ११० मुलुकलाई वैदेशिक रोजगारीका लागि खुला गरेकोमा व्यक्तिगत रूपमा करीब १७२ मुलुकमा नेपालीहरू कामका लागि गएका छन् । १७२ मुलुकहरूमा पनि मुख्य गन्तव्यका रूपमा मलेशिया, कतार, साउदी अरेबिया र यूएई रहेका छन् ।

कोरोना प्रभावले गर्दा आर्थिक गतिविधिहरू कम भई अर्थतन्त्र शिथिल हुँदै जाँदा यसको प्रभाव वैदेशिक रोजगारीमा समेत देखिँदै छ । अन्तरराष्ट्रिय श्रम संगठन (आईएलओ)ले कोरोना महामारीका कारण विश्वमा करीब ५० प्रतिशत (अर्थात् करीब २ अर्ब ७० करोड) कामदारको रोजगारी खोसिएको तथ्य सार्वजनिक गरेको छ । यस्तो अवस्थामा रोजगारका लागि नेपालीहरू गएका मुलुकहरूको अर्थतन्त्र पनि नकारात्मक रूपमा प्रभावित भएकाले त्यहाँ रहेको नेपालीको रोजगारी खोसिने अवस्था आएको छ । वैदेशिक रोजगारीका अवसरमा कमीका कारण हाल त्यँहा रहेका नेपालीहरू स्वदेश फर्कनुपर्ने अवस्था छ भने हरेक वर्ष श्रमबजारमा प्रवेश गर्ने जनशक्तिसमेत नयाँ रोजगारीबाट वञ्चित हुने स्थिति छ । यसरी कोरोनाका कारण हाम्रो मुलुकमा पनि कल कारखानाहरू बन्द भई समग्र आर्थिक गतिविधिहरूमा कमी भएकाले बेरोजगारी समस्या भयावह हुने देखिन्छ ।

विप्रेषणको अवस्था
कोरोनाका कारण विप्रेषणमा पनि नकरात्मक प्रभाव पर्ने देखिन्छ । आर्थिक वर्ष २०६५/६६ मा रू. २०९ अर्बको विप्रेषण आप्रवाह रहेकोमा आर्थिक वर्ष २०७५/७६ सम्म आइपुग्दा सो रकममा वृद्धि भई रू. ८७९ अर्ब पुगेको छ । कोरोना विपत्तिसँगै यस वर्ष भने विप्रेषणमा कमी भई करीब रू. ८०० अर्बमा सीमित हुने अनुमान गरिएको छ । वैदेशिक रोेजगारीमा गएका अधिकांश नेपाली आधारभूत कार्यमा संलग्न भएकाले विप्रेषणको रकममा ठूलो कमी नआउने कतिपयको राय भए तापनि अधिकांश गन्तव्य मुलुकको अर्थतन्त्र ऋणात्मक हुने भएकाले सो अनुसार नहुने देखिन्छ ।

विप्रेषण आप्रवाहका कमीले नेपालको अर्थतन्त्रमा बृहत् प्रभाव पर्ने छ । बैंकिङ क्षेत्रमा तरलता, कर्जा प्रवाह तथा असुलीमा समस्या, वैदेशिक मुद्राको आर्जनमा कमीका कारण कोषमा दबाब, सरकारको राजस्व आम्दानीमा कमी, विप्रेषण प्राप्त गर्ने घर परिवारमा क्रयशक्तिमा कमी आदि तत्काल देखिने असर हुन् । मध्यम तथा लामो समयमा भने यसले गरीबी वृद्धि तथा आर्थिक असमानतामा समेत ठूलो फरक ल्याउने देखिन्छ । यसले गर्दा सन् १९७० देखि मुलुकले गरेको गरीबी निवारणका प्रयासलाई समेत असर गर्ने देखिन्छ ।

आगामी बाटो

आर्थिक मन्दीका कारण विश्वका विभिन्न मुलुकहरूले राहत प्याकेजको घोषण गरिरहेका छन् । हाम्रो मुलुकमा पनि कोरोनाका कारण अर्थतन्त्रका पर्ने नकारात्मक प्रभाव न्यूनीकरण गरी अर्थतन्त्रको रिकभरी तत्काल होस् भनी सरकारी निकायबाट विभिन्न व्यवस्था आएका छन् । यस सम्बधमा हाम्रो मुलुकले ल्याउने विभिन्न प्याकेजहरूले वैदेशिक रोजगारीबाट फर्कनेलाई समेत सम्बोधन गर्न जरुरी छ ।

विप्रेषण आप्रवाहको कमीले नेपालको अर्थतन्त्रमा बृहत् प्रभाव पर्ने छ । बैंकिङ क्षेत्रमा तरलता, कर्जा प्रवाह तथा असुलीमा समस्या, वैदेशिक मुद्राको आर्जनमा कमीका कारण कोषमा दबाब, सरकारको राजस्व आम्दानीमा कमी, विप्रेषण प्राप्त गर्ने घर परिवारमा क्रयशक्तिमा कमी आदि तत्काल देखिने असर हुन् ।

अर्थतन्त्रको यस कठिन घडीलाई सकारात्मक रूपमा लिई वैदेशिक रोजगारीमा रहिरहेको परनिर्भरतामा कमी ल्याउन आवश्यक छ । बन्दाबन्दीे सकिनासाथ वैदेशिक रोजगारीमा गएका नेपालीहरू स्वदेश फर्कने हुँदा ठूलो संख्यामा रहेका नेपालीलाई स्वदेश ल्याउन तयारी गर्नुपर्ने देखिन्छ । कृषि छोडेर शहरतिर काम गर्नेहरू पनि अहिले गाउँ फर्केको अवस्थामा उनीहरूको शीप तथा अनुभवका आधारमा रोजगारीको सृजना गर्नुपर्ने अर्को चुनौतीसमेत रहेको छ । पर्यटन, उत्पादनमूलक तथा निर्माण क्षेत्र आदिमा उल्लेख्य रोजगारी सृजना तत्कालका लागि सम्भव छैन । यस्तो अवस्थामा मुलुकको कुल गार्हस्थ्य उत्पादनमा ठूलो अंशको योगदान गर्ने कृषिक्षेत्रमा रोजगारी सृजना गर्नुपर्ने हुन्छ । यस महामारीलाई हामीले कृषिमा आत्मनिर्भर बन्ने अवसरका रूपमा लिनुपर्छ ।

व्यावसायिक तथा वैज्ञानिक कृषिखेतीका लागि आवश्यक कानून तथा भौतिक पूर्वाधारको निर्माण गर्न जरुरी छ । यसबाट निजीक्षेत्रलाई समेत विश्वासमा लिई कृषिमा ठूलो सफलता प्राप्त गर्न सकिन्छ । यसका साथै वैदेशिक रोजगारीबाट फर्केकाहरूलाई कृषिमा आधारित लघु तथा साना उद्यमका लागि सहुलियत कर्जा सहज रूपमा उपलब्ध गराउनुपर्छ । यसका लागि सहकारी तथा लघुवित्त वित्तीय संस्थाहरूलाई परिचालन गर्न सकिन्छ ।

यसैगरी स्थानीय तहले कृषि कार्यको प्रवर्द्धनका लागि बीउबिजनहरू सहज रूपमा उपलब्ध गराउने, आवश्यक तालीमको प्रबन्ध गर्ने, बजार व्यवस्थापनको काम गर्ने, उत्पादनको उचित मूल्य कायम गरी किसान र उपभोक्ताहरूलाई बिचौलियाको मारबाट बचाउने, स्थानीय अवसरमा आधारित भएर व्यावसायिक योजनाअनुसार कृषि कार्य गर्ने, बाँझो कृषि भूमि प्रयोगका लागि बाध्यात्मक नीति निर्माण गर्ने आदि काम गर्न सक्छन् । यसरी स्थानीय तहमा आर्थिक गतिविधि वृद्धि भएमा यसले विकास निर्माणमा पनि गति ल्याउनेछ ।

वैदेशिक रोजगारको क्षेत्रमार्फत अर्थतन्त्रमा पार्ने नराम्रो प्रभाव न्यूनीकरणका निम्ति सरकारले तथा सरोकारवालाले वैदेशिक रोजगारीबाट फर्किएका कामदारहरूको दक्षता मुलुकमै प्रयोग हुने गरी योजना निर्माण गर्न आवश्यक छ । फर्किएका कामदारहरूलाई मुलुकमै स्वरोजगार बनाउने तथा आत्मनिर्भर अर्थतन्त्रको निर्माणमा लाग्न प्रोत्साहन गर्न सहयोगी हुने योजना तथा कार्यक्रमलाई प्राथमिकता दिनुपर्छ ।

लेखक नेपाल राष्ट्र बैंकमा कार्यरत छन् ।

Green Finance for Sustainable Economic Development

Green Finance for Sustainable Economic Development 

  

Introduction

Green Finance refers to the range of innovative financial instruments as well as mechanisms/initiatives that promote green investments. This means more capital flows to sustainable sectors like renewable energy, clean transportation, sustainable water management, etc and less to the unsustainable sectors like mining, coal industry, etc. It is to increase financial flows from banks and financial institutions (public, private and not-for-profit sectors) to sustainable development priorities that have positive and durable environmental externalities. 

A crucial essential about green finance is to generate environmental benefits as part of a strategy to attain inclusive, resilient and sustainable development. The underlying concept is that sustainable financing will lead to sustainable economic growth with better managed environmental and social risks, while also ensuring a better rate of return on the projects. As such green finance covers a wide range of financial product offerings including banking, investment and insurance products such as green bonds, green investment funds, climate risk insurance, etc. Hereby sustainability we mean maintaining a balance between various factors and forces in action, i.e striking a balance between the need and wants of the individuals (being shaped by the cultural, political and economic factors), while also considering their impacts on the environment. 

Fig: Sustainability Pyramid

Global Practices

Green finance has been talk of the town after the declaration of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals 2015 and the Paris Climate Agreement 2016, which garnered global understanding to the fact that green finance is vital for sustainable economic development .

Since then the practice ensuring that sustainable ventures will get the desired financing and institutions that create hazardous environmental repercussions get the least priority (if not financing at all) has been prevalent. Such practices have been implemented by regional economic blocks, individual countries, investors groups, etc. For eg, regional economic unions like European Union (EU) have made it necessary for companies to reveal their environmental and social policies. Investors have also formed a union based on their common interest in green finance.  For eg, the investor community has come together almost two decades ago adhering to a set of principles known as United Nations Principles for Responsible Investment that covers the environmental, social and governance aspects in their investment policies and practices. Such community at present has 2000 signatories with 81 trillion dollars of the worth of assets and investment.

Similarly countries across the world have formed and implemented a framework that requires the banks to consider environmental and social risks while processing investment projects. However, implementing green financing is not possible through the involvement of a single party/agent. 

Who is responsible?

It is not only the responsibility of the government to ensure that sustainable development measures are adopted. Practical solutions to green finance demands proactive participation of three important stakeholders: Government, Business Enterprises and Citizens.

On the government side, the onus is on the government to develop a regulatory framework and institutional set up that promotes green financing. Similarly from the business side, they must be generous to contribute financial resources to back-up the efforts of the government as the development of eco-friendly infrastructure requires a huge amount of investment from both the government and the private sector. Such investment should be dedicated to the sector of clean energy, transportation, manufacturing, etc which have a direct impact to reduce carbon and other emissions. Similarly, the business community should also encourage research and development initiatives to promote eco-friendly projects, ensure optimum forward and backward linkages with the common interest entities. 

To ensure the longevity of the efforts of the government and the business, citizens should also play a part in their share. This includes awareness and willingness of the citizens to support environment-friendly projects and products from such projects, willingness to pay for such products, desire to work for such firms, and so on. On top of all, the role of global organizations like the United Nations, The World Bank, the European Union, etc is also important as these set the international best practices. 

Nepal's approach to Green Financing

Nepal's concern for sustainable economic development practices dates back to 1950. Before 1950 Nepal revealed its environmental concerns through species conservation and forest use, in 1950-1980 through natural resources conservation and utilization, since 1980’s through policies, and 1985 (from Seventh National Plan) onwards with a focus on Environmental Impact Assessment(EIA), EIA guidelines and in the 1990s through laws. 

Government of Nepal has also accorded due importance to sustainable economic development via formulation of Policies (National Agricultural Policy 2004, Industrial Policy 2011, Climate Change Policy 2011), strategies (Poverty Reduction Strategy 2003, Sustainable Development Agenda, 2000) and programs (National Adaptation Plan of Action 2010), to ensure sustainable economic development. Nepal is a party to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change(UNFCCC), has ratified the Paris Agreement and has also adopted the Sustainable Development Goals. All these initiatives illustrate that we are concerned about environment-friendly development approaches and continuing with this tendency the country has given pivotal importance to green finance.

One of the important stakeholders of green finance are the central bank of the country. As guardians of financial stability, central banks have serious concerns for sustainable development. Effective implementation of green finance initiatives will ensure financial and microeconomic stability mitigating possible risk of high inflation or that of business continuity emanating from climate change or other environmental risks. Hence increase in investment in sustainable and eco-friendly projects has been a topmost priority of the central banks throughout the globe.

Nepal joined the global bandwagon of green finance movement after Nepal Rastra Bank(NRB) became a member of Sustainable Banking Network (SBN), which is a network of central bank and banking associations from emerging markets that was set up in 2012 to foster green and sustainable finance.  NRB has duly recognized sustainability as a central tenet of economic growth. It has demonstrated a strong commitment to environmental sustainability and has integrated principles of sustainable development in its policies and programs. The Unified Directives 2019 issued by the bank  has made it mandatory for licensed banks and financial institutions(BFIs) to undergo Environmental Impact Analysis before disbursing the loan. Similarly, it has also issued Guidelines on Environmental & Social Risk Management for Banks and Financial Institutions 2018. The guidelines aims to establish the Environmental and Social Risk Management Framework as the standard process for evaluation and integration of environmental and social issues in the functioning of banks and financial institutions and requires BFIs to develop and implement an Environmental and Social Management System (ESMS) consistent with local environmental, social laws and regulation, and overtime with recognized international standards such as IFC’s Performance Standards on Environmental and Social Sustainability. The guidelines focus on assessing air emissions and air quality, water use and conservation, wastewater and water quality, solid wastes, labor and working conditions, biodiversity and ecosystem services, culture, and natural heritages, etc.

As a result of these practices, BFIs have started to lend more to the sustainable sectors like electric vehicles, while enforcing stringent lending to hazardous coal based industries, crushers, industries based on fossil fuels, etc. For a country like Nepal, which is all set up to produce surplus clean electricity (more than demand) in the upcoming years, these measures will not only protect our lush natural resources but will also save us a huge amount of currency that goes in importing of fuels. 

Conclusion  

Green finance is certain to gain momentum in the future with most of the countries worldwide focusing on measures to curb pollution and greenhouse effects, and with regulators having placed stringent requirements regarding compliance and disclosure. The need of the time is to revamp existing measures making it more suitable to the local context. While doing so reference of the global best practices should also be taken. Such measures should be able to garner coordination across stakeholders to ensure that green finance efforts are implemented sustainably and comply with international best practices. Incentivizing public financial investments, more awareness across the stakeholders, etc can furthermore promote green financing. Similarly, stakeholders should also be proactive enough to implement the policies and strategies in place. 

All these initiatives will ensure the effectiveness of green finance for ensuring sustainable economic development. For a country like Nepal with robust tourism potential(lush-green resources, varied biodiversity, cultural and historical heritage, etc), implementation of green finance and other practices of sustainable economic development is a must. 

Published in Upahar(Magazine of Economics and Management), Souvenir of Rastriya Banijya Bank Limited, 2076

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