So-called Nepali industrialists accumulated ill-gotten capital during the Panchayat years. The least these businessmen can do now is to invest creatively and become real entrepreneurs and risk-takers.
At the end of seven five-year plans, Nepal still lacks a development cornerstone. The people have been thoroughly exploited by government mal-administration, and the Nepali economy is today characterised by despair, disappointment and disillusionment.
There are many reasons why. A major factor has been the parasitical nature of Nepali business, which has taken benefits from the people and government without giving anything back in the form of entrepreneurial skill or daring.
During the years of Rana rule, the privileged were the capitalists owning tracts of arable land and family fortunes in gold, jewelry and mansions. This class had neither the urge nor the need to engage in entrepreneurial activity. When, together with education and travel, access to industrial activity was made available to common folk in the 1950s, infrastructure base as well as capital for true industrial development was lacking.