Few days back when I was reading this book Nepal 2030: A vision for peaceful and prosperous nation in which one of the concluding remarks by Dr. Sagar Raj Sharma in the beginning chapter lured me to craft this article. As he finished his chapter Building a bridge towards development: Nepalese Economy in 2030 saying, “Our future will depend not on what will happen to us, but on what we decide to become, and on the collective will to create it”, the pragmatist inside me could not stop myself from bringing one of the case studies from my 2012 reserves, and giving answer to what actually fails us to become what we are destined to as a prosperous country.
Back in 2011 when Surya Nepal Garment factory- a big employment generator- decided to permanently shut down its operations; a series of interpretations, news feeds and calculations emerged in daily basis over the next few months through different sources behind the reasons for collapse and its possible impacts on the economy. However, such stories neither brought the venture back nor any lessons from it were taken seriously to stop further collapses. So this is a high time to set back to prepare ourselves if we want to be served with the beautifully baked lamington-Nepal 2030 anytime in near future.
What happened?
Established in 2004 in Biratnagar, Surya Nepal Private Limited (SNPL) garment manufacture unit (SNGU) was popular for its international brands like John Players and Springwood. The factory was installed with an investment of about 700 million and was responsible for 50 to 60 percent of Nepal’s garment export. It was the country’s highest tax paying company which had given job opportunity to around 600 workers, mostly women. Despite all these, the company had to permanently shut down its garment unit in August 2011 because of the continuous labor strike and cancellation of orders by importers.
