KATHMANDU, Jan 14:The government has revised the list of potential exportable goods and services and brought down the number of products to 12 from 19 -- which included 12 goods and 7 services.
According to a draft of the revised National Trade Integration Strategy (NTIS), the new list has 9 goods and 3 services.
The commerce and supplies ministry prepared the draft for the revision of NTIS-2010.
Exporters have been asking the government the revise NTIS-2010 as the exports of the listed goods and services kept dropping despite the government's high priority.
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Likewise, the list also did not include some of the most exportable items, the exporters have been saying.
The revision was also urgent as the global market scenario has changed since 2010. Necessity for trade diversification coupled with access to the international market and availability of raw materials were other factors prompting the revision.
The draft -- prepared by a team led by Toya Narayan Gyawali -- will be presented to the Council of Ministers for the final approval.
The team had talked to experts, international development partners and related institutions in the private sector before finalizing the draft, according to the ministry.
Export of most of the 19 NTIS-listed goods and services over the last four years has been disappointing. According to the Trade and Export Promotion Centre (TEPC), exports of the NTIS products rose by a mere 2.08 percent to Rs 27.41 billion in the last fiscal year. The ministry is now planning to set an export target for each of the products/services in the revised NTIS. The draft will also look to clearly specify which authorities will look after specific products.
The draft has included leather goods, footwear, carpets and fabric, textile yarn and rope four in the list. Health and education sectors -- that were separate products in NTIS-2010 -- have been included under tourism, in the draft.
NTIS is one of the ambitious programs the government launched to promote exports of products and services having high export potential in 2010.
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