Economic Integration and Sustainability
Cultivating Talented Individuals:Support Scheme:Investigative Research Assistance (for student)
Jeet Bahadur Sapkota / Investigation Area: Kathmandu, Nepal
2009.12.10
Year: 2009/10 (D2)
Name: Jeet Bahadur SAPKOTA
Itinerary: 12/10/2009 - 01/16/2010(Month/Date/Year)
Destination (Name of city and country)
Research objectives
After completing several cross country analyses on the effects of globalization on human quality of life (QOL) in developing countries, I am focusing the analysis on Nepal and the South Asia region. Therefore the objectives of this investigative field research program to Nepal are twofold as follows;
- To visit the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) Secretariat in Kathmandu, Nepal for collecting poverty, trade and investment related data of the SAARC region. The data will be used to write a paper focusing SAARC region on the research topic.
- To visit several government offices in Nepal for collecting data on trade, investment and human development. The data will be used to make the country case.
Research project
- Project 1:
In the context of growing attention on India as a part of on going initiatives of East Asian integration, effectiveness of SAARC has significant impact on bringing the whole South Asian region in the integration process. Thus the focus of the first research project would be "Trade and investment integration in SAARC and prospects for bringing SAARC into the greater East Asian integration." - Project 2:
In addition, the study will assess the impact of trade and investment integration on human development, employment, poverty and inequality in Nepal as a case model of low income countries in Asia.
Achievement
During the field work in Nepal, I could collect the necessary data for the research project. The field work would be crucial step to finalize the research project in few months. Briefly, the achievements are as follows;
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First of all, I went to the SAARC Secretariat at Kathmandu and collected the necessary documents and data. I also discussed with some officers on trade and investment integration in the region. Because of internal problems in most of the major countries in the region and the tough confrontation between two biggest countries India and Pakistan, progress on regional integration is found very poor. It seems a long way to go to achieve the integration goal of the region as the countries are failing to gain the political stability and social justice.
- Second important visit was in the National Planning Commission and the Central Bureau of Statistics of Nepal. I collected the raw data of recent survey on the labor force in Nepal and other several reports and publications. I also discussed on the data character and specifications.
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In addition, I visited the Ministry of Commerce and Supplies, Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Labor & Transport Management and Ministry of Local Development. Specifically, I collected recent trade statistics from the Trade Promotion Centre and labor statistics from Ministry of Labor and Transport Management.
- Visiting to the World Bank country office and Poverty Alleviation Fund help me to understand current donor funded poverty reduction projects.
- Visiting Nepal Rastra Bank (Central Bank of Nepal) was useful to collect data on banking sector development in the recent decades.
- At the end, I visited Chinese University of Honk Kong and discussed on research questions with Asst. Professor Stephen Robert Nagy.
To sum up, the field research was successful. I earnestly thank to the GIARI and its considerate team for the generous financial support and valuable guidance to conduct this research project.