Nepal can prepare in advance and mitigate the shocks of disasters faster if it unlocks the potential of its $100-billion economy, according to the chairman of Shangrila Hospitality Group. Prasidha Bahadur Panday released his first book, Prime Minister And Prosperity, last week, a timing that now carries heavy weight following devastating flash-floods that hit the Himalayan nation.
A unified development strategy
Panday argues that the country needs a fundamental shift in its economic approach, moving away from isolated projects and ministry-wise planning toward a centrally coordinated national framework. He believes this framework should be capable of transforming Nepal into a USD 100-billion economy within the next 10 to 12 years. The book, according to Panday, is less about identifying individual projects and more about establishing the governance architecture required to execute a full economic transformation programme.
He proposes the development of an overarching economic and social Master Plan with a single point of central coordination under the Prime Minister. Individual ministries would act as executing agencies. This approach aims to bring together key economic opportunities—including hydropower, tourism, agriculture, and infrastructure—under a common vision with measurable GDP-linked outcomes and defined timelines.
Nepal has implemented multiple development plans and thousands of individual projects over the years, yet they have largely operated within sectoral and ministerial silos. The absence of effective coordination across ministries often results in delays, political bottlenecks, and fragmented implementation. Panday believes central coordination should not be interpreted as an attempt to empower a central authority, but as a mechanism to ensure different ministries and agencies work toward a common national objective.
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For international investors, the primary requirement is not further explanation of Nepal’s potential. The country’s hydropower and tourism opportunities are widely understood. What investors need is clarity on the government’s vision, the legal and regulatory framework, and the investment mechanism. They also need confidence that commitments will be delivered within a defined timeframe. A credible accountability mechanism at the highest level of government could become the foundation for attracting significantly larger volumes of capital.
Building resilience through coordination
The latest flash floods have once again highlighted the vulnerability of Nepal’s infrastructure and tourism economy to natural disasters. Panday believes that disasters should be treated as recurring shocks that a stronger, better-planned economy must absorb rather than events that repeatedly push the country back to the starting point. With a USD 100-billion economic capacity as the overarching objective, the financial resources, investment interest, expertise, and institutional capacity required to rebuild damaged infrastructure could be mobilized much faster.
What may have taken decades under the existing fragmented approach could potentially be addressed within two or three years through a coordinated programme. Panday places greater emphasis on preventing the loss of human lives than on protecting physical assets. Roads, bridges, and buildings can be rebuilt, whereas lives cannot be recovered. Therefore, Nepal needs to invest in robust early-warning mechanisms that can detect floods, glacial, and river-related threats well in advance.
Among the sectors that could help Nepal accelerate its journey toward a USD 100-billion economy, tourism assumes particular importance. Panday sees tourism as a faster economic multiplier for Nepal than several other sectors. He believes the country needs to move beyond the conventional approach of developing individual tourism projects. Pokhara, in particular, has the potential to be developed as a major integrated tourism hub on the lines of destinations such as Bali and Phuket.
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Instead of treating individual hotels, attractions, airports, and tourism products as separate entities, the entire city and its surrounding ecosystem could be planned as an integrated tourism platform. Such a hub could bring together hotels, tourism products, aviation connectivity, financial services, and supporting infrastructure with appropriate investment incentives. The multiplier effect generated by such a concentrated ecosystem could extend well beyond the destination itself. Airports could be developed as aviation and logistics hubs capable of connecting large markets in India and China with Nepal.
Panday also believes Nepal needs to rethink its approach to Nepal Airlines. Instead of looking at partial privatisation or the sale of government equity, the country should undertake a full valuation of the airline’s assets and commercial rights. Exploring ways to monetise the entire platform could enable an international player to deploy substantial additional aircraft over a five- to ten-year period, transforming the carrier into a much larger regional player.
The book draws on success stories from economies in the region, such as Singapore and Malaysia, to illustrate how improving government delivery mechanisms can fundamentally change a nation’s economics. Panday cites the transformation of Singapore’s trade and port-related processes through TradeNet technology as an example of how government procedures could be streamlined. The lesson for Nepal, he believes, is not simply to replicate a particular technology, but to adopt the underlying philosophy of government delivery.
Panday’s proposed framework places GDP at the centre of performance measurement. Individual projects should be assessed not merely on whether they are completed, but on the economic and social value they generate. The USD 100-billion target is presented not simply as a number, but as a measure around which the country can align its development priorities, investment strategy, and governance delivery.
