Trade Promotion in Nepal: An Impossible Task? A Case Study on a Landlocked Least Developed Country

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1 Commentary Trade Promotion in Nepal: An Impossible Task? A Case Study on a Landlocked Least Developed Country Foreign Trade Review 52(1) Indian Institute of Foreign Trade SAGE Publications sagepub.in/home.nav DOI: / Peter Richter 1 Abstract Nepal, the small poor country in the Himalayas is aiming at a full integration into the global economy. The country is a founding member of SAARC (South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation) and was the 147th member to join the World Trade Organization (WTO) in Nevertheless, with regard to trade in goods Nepal is still facing a high and constantly growing trade deficit which reached mid-2015 a massive 32 per cent of GDP, which can only be sustained through the remittances transfers from millions of migrant workers. Many emerging countries like in Asia for example Malaysia and Vietnam, also Least Developed Countries (LDCs) as Laos, Cambodia and Myanmar are following the same pattern: the trade sector propelled by foreign investment is selected as lead sector to impulse a fast catch-up development. Nepal is following this strategy; the Government adopted in 2010 the Nepal Trade Integration Strategy (NTIS) as its key instrument for export expansion envisaged by the Trade Policy In this context the questions is arising: Was the strategy successful or are at least steps in the right direction visible? Despite all efforts to improve export promotion performance, outward trade in goods showed already in the months before the 2015 earthquake a renewed weakened trend. Adding on the effects of the earthquake for 2014/15 a negative export growth of around 10 per cent has shown up, which will further deepen 2015/16 caused by the on-going fuel crisis in the country. Still, principal export products nearly unchanged since long time- are carpets, textiles and fabrics, garment and juices, all from the industrial sector. Under the conditions of a relatively weak industrial base (only 15 per cent of GDP) and an unproductive agricultural sector (32 per cent of GDP) it cannot surprise that export 1 Freelance consultant, formerly Project Manager with the German International Cooperation (GIZ) and formerly Professor at the Management College of Berlin, (Berufsakademie) Weisswasserweg, Berlin, Germany. Corresponding author: Peter Richter, Weisswasserweg 37, Berlin, Germany. eprichter2003@yahoo.com

2 Richter 49 volumes achieved are not sufficient to overcome the existing trade deficit. The reasons are relatively small production volumes as well as the insufficient compliance with required international quality standards. Moreover, high transaction costs for cross-border trade and regulatory bureaucratic obstacles hinder the export-oriented trade. Other structural and institutional hindrances have to be added on. With so many bottlenecks with regard to supply side issues and the international marketing of goods, one has to come to the conclusion that the landlocked LDC Nepal will in the foreseeable future not be competitive in the international trade environment, with the exception of the cross-border trade with India. On the other hand, the export of labour services and tourism are sustaining and running the economy of the country. Therefore a radical change in the strategy of the country is indispensable and the focus has to be put on the export of services, including hydropower as the big potential sector of the future. Such a clear vision is still missing completely in Nepal. Keywords Nepal, international trade in goods, Nepal Trade Integration Strategy, Structural and institutional hindrances to Trade, New vision on export of services. Introduction Nepal, the small country in the Himalayas with 26 million inhabitants, is aiming at a full integration into the global economy. The country is a founding member of South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) and was the 147th member to join the World Trade Organization (WTO) in 2004 (Bastakoti & Seiler, 2015). The country counts as a least developed country (LDC) with preferential access to most world markets. As it does not have sea access, bordering India to the south and China (Tibet) to the north, it is landlocked and dependent on other nations for its imports and exports. Trade in goods and services accounts for well over 40 per cent of Nepal s gross domestic product (GDP), of which remittances represent by far the biggest portion with it alone contributing around 30 per cent. Nevertheless, with regard to trade in goods Nepal is facing a high and constantly growing trade deficit which reached mid-2015 a massive 32 per cent of GDP, which can only be sustained through the transfers from the hardship suffering migrant workers in the first place in Middle East and Malaysia. As the country is still lacking a favourable business environment that encourages producers and exporters to fully exploit the existing market opportunities open to them as SAARC and WTO members, it is unable to achieve high growth rates needed for a fast catch-up development. The situation has been worsened by the heavy earthquake which struck the country in April 2015 and more recently by the political conflict in the Tarai and the subsequent blockade from India. On Saturday, 25 April 2015, a 7.6 magnitude earthquake struck the central part of Nepal with widespread destruction of residential and government buildings, heritage sites, schools and health posts, roads, bridges and water supply systems impacting one-third of the national GDP. Also high damages have been reported in

3 50 Foreign Trade Review 52(1) the productive sectors like agriculture, industry and commerce, mostly with regard to small and micro-enterprises which represent the largest share of enterprises in these sectors. The earthquake distrupted the operation of enterprises due to damages to trade-related infrastructure, lack of labour and loss of demand. It is estimated that the total value of disaster effects is equivalent to US$7 billion. In the three abovementioned productive sectors, the effects amount to around US$430 million (see Government of Nepal, 2015). In the aftermath, exports are in a downward slide and thay are expected to be further reduced in fiscal year (FY) 2015/16. After the promulgation of the new constitution in October 2015 protests and demonstrations erupted in the Tarai zone bordering India which led to a continuous disruption of the supply lines at the Nepal India border. It is suspected that India actively supports the Tarai movement against the central government in Kathmandu to mark its influence on Nepal politics. The consequences have been huge additional economic losses in all sectors of the economy in the times when the country was just starting to recover from the devastating earthquake. The private sector losses are already mounting up to 200 billion Nepalese rupees, far more than the earthquake-related losses. The GDP is expected for the FY 2015/16 to register a negative growth. The most affected sector is most probably the trade sector. In the first three months of 2015/16 the merchandise exports decreased a shocking 25.4 per cent (compared to a drop in the same months in the previous year of only 2.3 per cent). Similarly imports conceded by nearly 32 per cent, probably leading to a temporary reduction of trade deficit by one-third. In February 2016, the blockade was finally lifted and the country is slowly returning to normality. Many emerging countries in Asia, for example, Malaysia and Vietnam, and LDCs, such as, Laos, Cambodia and Myanmar, are following the same pattern: the trade sector propelled by foreign investment is selected as lead sector to impulse a fast catch-up development. This approach is, of course, also behind the whole concept of the multinational aid for trade-initiative with advocacy from the WTO to support LDCs to lever trade for economic growth and alleviate poverty (World Trade Organization, 2011). Nepal is following this strategy as well, explicitly since In this context, an array of questions are arising. Was the strategy successful or are at least steps in the right direction visible? What are the impacts from being a landlocked LDC? Further on, the country was struck by a strong earthquake and more recently paralyzed by the conflict in the Tarai and the closure of its borders. Have these events longer lasting effects? Does the country count with potential sectors and dynamic advantages to boost its exports in significant dimensions? Does it has the necessary capacities, as well as in the public as in the private sector to promote exports and consequently to follow successfully the avenue of a number of emerging economies in the region? 1 Trade Policy in Nepal Back in 2009, the Government of Nepal reformulated its Trade Policy in order to support economic development and poverty alleviation initiatives through an enhanced contribution from the trade sector to the national economy. As next step the government adopted in 2010 the Nepal Trade Integration Strategy (NTIS) as

4 Richter 51 key strategy for export expansion envisaged by the Trade Policy 2009 (Government of Nepal, 2010). As the export sector was still not performing as expected, the Government of Nepal initiated in 2014 a process of reviewing and updating of the strategy. The Ministry of Commerce and Supplies (MoCS) 2 has taken the primary responsibility for the review and update process of the NTIS; the National Implementation Unit (NIU) is facilitating the process. Recently, in November 2015 the government presented the updated NTIS, 3 surpassing its original goal of at least several months. In parallel to the NTIS review and update, MoCS was also reviewing the Trade Policy 2009 as the global trade and business environment had changed in recent years and the objectives set in the old policy document had not been materialized fully. The result was announced late The new Trade Policy 2015 is addressing the challenges of the trade sector with a major focus on trade in the service sector, specifically hydropower, tourism, business process outsourcing (BPO) and labour. In order to return to the status prior to the earthquake, the new trade policy is additionally addressing the need to support the earthquake affected enterprises, further mobilizing technical assistance from development partners in line with the overarching development strategy to enhance the export capacities and improve the trade-related infrastructure. The Trade Policy 2015 is supposed to guide the revised NTIS. In current times, Nepal puts more emphasis to the implementation of WTO agreements and preferential treatment as a LDC. With regard to the implementation of the WTO Trade Facilitation Agreement from 2013, MoCS has prepared a trade facilitation needs assessment with support from World Bank and elaborated a corresponding implementation plan. Another issue presently stressed by Nepal is the WTO agreement on preferential market access for LDCs in service trade. Nepal is negotiating for an agreement with non-ldcs to make use of the WTO service waiver and has been requesting to allow the Mode 4 supply of services through temporary presence of semi- and unskilled natural persons. The agreement has special importance for Nepal as its advantages rest more in the area of trade in services, like in energy, tourism and labour than in the area of goods. To support its commerce and country strategy, Nepal as an LDC receives support from the Enhanced Integrated Fund (EIF), which is an international initiative supporting LDCs to be competitive and active players in the global trading system by helping them to tackle hindrances to trade. The EIF activities are financed through a multidonor Trust Fund. The programme with contributions from 23 donor countries is currently helping 51 underdeveloped countries worldwide to promote trade, economic growth and sustainable development with the final intention to lift people out of poverty. The purpose of the EIF is to create a strong and effective result-oriented partnership to support LDCs own drive to mainstream trade into national development strategies, set up structures needed to coordinate the delivery of trade-related technical assistance (TRTA) and build capacity to trade, which also includes addressing critical supply-side constraints as well as mobilize further donors support to a country s trade agenda. In Nepal the two existing windows of EIF funding are being used: Tier 1 is aimed at supporting greater in-country capacity and ownership. Tier 2 is aimed at assisting in the implementation of priority projects identified in the NTIS action matrix.

5 52 Foreign Trade Review 52(1) Table 1. Development Finance Nepal External Financing Flows (million current US$) 2006/ / / (growth in %) FD inflows Remittances Official development assistance Of which aid for trade Source: WTO, Aid for Trade at a Glance, Country Profiles, The numbers in Table 1 demonstrate steadily growing Aid for Trade (AfT) flows to Nepal as well as an always increasing share of ODA which till today does not find an adequate reflection in Nepal s trade or macro-economic strategy. Beyond EIF contributions, Nepal receives support AfT resources from a number of sources like World Bank, US Aid, EU, Denmark (Danida) and Germany (GIZ). The Development of the Trade Sector in Real Terms The new NTIS has only recently be finalized and implementation not yet begun. Looking into the five years of implementation of the first NTIS (2010), it can be stated that neither macroeconomy nor exports have developed as expected. The growth crisis of Nepal is in fact extending further. Already in the FY 2012/13 GDP only grew by 3.8 per cent against the targeted 5.5 per cent. While the economic growth rate in the following FY had been 5.1 per cent (highest since FY 2007/08), in FY 2014/15, much influenced by the earthquake and by adverse climatic conditions for the agricultural sector, economic growth has dipped with 3 per cent to its lowest rate in the last eight years, against an earlier projection of 5.0 per cent. It is projected that the downward trend will be further driven by the current fuel crisis and even a negative growth rates seems likely for 2015/16. One of the factors of the growth crisis of Nepal is the poor overall performance of exports in goods. Despite all efforts to improve export promotion performance, outward trade in goods showed already in the months before the earthquake a renewed weakened trend. Although FY 2013/14 depicted a promising growth of total exports by 17.4 per cent, the share of exports to GDP still remained below 5 per cent. Adding on the effects of the earthquake for FY 2014/15, a negative export growth of around 10 per cent has to be expected, which will further deepen 2015/16 caused by the fuel crisis in the country. For the first three months of the FY 2015/16 merchandise exports show a decrease of more than 25 per cent. As a consequence, exports as percentage of GDP are permanently sliding: meanwhile it still had been 10 per cent in FY 2004/05, it in 2013/14 counted only for mere 4.7 per cent. This has to be taken as a strong indicator to seriously question the present strategic approach and create a new growth model.

6 Richter 53 Table 2. Nepal, Trade with World Total Goods: Trade flows and balance Period Value Mio Imports Exports Balance Total trade % Growth* Value Mio % Growth* Value Mio % Growth* Value Mio , ,068 % Growth* , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , Source: European Commission (2016). As at the same time, the imports of petroleum, agricultural and luxuries products were constantly increasing and will further grow due to the low industrial capacity of the country (although presently likewise depressed through the fuel crisis). Correspondingly, the country s trade deficit (Refer to Table 2) and its relation to GDP are constantly widening. The deficit soared to over 32 per cent in 2013/14, against still 15 per cent in 2004/05. But it has also to be mentioned that a trade deficit is not per se negative if it is not leading to an ever growing foreign borrowing and increasing foreign debts. As in the case of Nepal, the rising trade deficit is balanced through growing remittances from its migrant workers, also through contributions from the tourism sector. The current account balance is even in surplus. However, at the same time this situation makes the country a remittances dependent one with private consumption counting for an astonishing 83.8 per cent of gross national income in 2013/14 (Economic Intelligence Unit, 2015). In these lines, a growing trade deficit hints to an underutilization of own resources and consequently of the existing national development and employment potentials. In a longer term consideration, the country is missing out to develop an own pattern of competitive sectors and exports which could lead to an ever increasing dependency from the inflow of remittances with a high vulnerability to external shocks. Structural Hindrances for Trade Development Despite adoption of an open and liberal economic model since early 1990s, Nepal is confronted with only a minimal growth of its merchandise exports and a ballooning trade deficit over the past two decades. How these phenomena can be explained?

7 54 Foreign Trade Review 52(1) Overall, the economy of Nepal is marked by a relatively weak industrial base (only 15 per cent of GDP) and a strong share of the overall comparatively unproductive agricultural sector (32 per cent of GDP). Correspondingly, a large number of Nepalese exports, but each in relative small quantities, come from the agricultural sector. Among the main exported goods, cardamom and medicinal/aromatic plants (MAPs) are configuring. But still, principal export products nearly unchanged since long time are carpets, textiles and fabrics, garment and juices, all from the industrial sector. Under these conditions, it cannot surprise that export volumes achieved are not sufficient to overcome the existing trade deficit. The reasons are relatively small production volumes, such as in honey or silver jewellery, as well as the insufficient compliance with required quality standards of potential export products. Moreover, high transaction costs for cross-border trade and regulatory bureaucratic obstacles hinder the export-oriented trade. Major hindrances for the enhancement of the export capacity are repeatedly mentioned 4 as follows: Inadequate infrastructure with regard to road connections, bridges and customs points Insufficient supply of energy and corresponding high costs Supply-side constraints: lack of coherent value chain development of exportable products at scale economies High bureaucracy in the public administration and corruption High trade and transport costs Inadequate business enabling environment Inadequate trade facilitation measures Weak export promotion facilities and funding Delay in legal and institutional reforms Inadequate technical standards, Sanitary and Phytosanitary (SPS) regulations and accreditation of testing laboratories. The new NTIS which still shows many flaws follows now a more focused approach, mainly underlining the potential for increased trade of 12 different products. However, the identified product categories still seem too many, taking into account the available capacity to intensively support their trade promotion. As such, an even more rigorous debate on the major priority sectors should take place amongst all relevant stakeholders from the public and private sectors. In general and as a first argument, only larger product groups should be considered in a trade strategy, such as agro/forestry products including cardamom and MAPs; or garments/textile including leather and footwear. As the new trade policy focuses on the export of services, strong sectors such as labour services and tourism should be considered with much higher priority, as well as hydropower, presently not included, which surely deserves absolute priority in the future. Further on, the linkages and opportunities to integrate the trade strategy into major strategies of other government sectors are under-represented. The present draft Agriculture Development Strategy and the combined donor financial support for the sector offer a tremendous basis for an impactful trade support. The NTIS 2015 seems to miss out on such linkage opportunities and comes across as a

8 Richter 55 stand-alone document. The complex architecture of the quality infrastructure (QI) in Nepal undermines its functionality and service-orientation especially vis-à-vis the private sector. An overall and specifically for trade enhancement much needed QI development plan is presently not in existence, rather than the existing wish list of individual organizational improvements amongst different departments, even different ministries, mostly focusing on procurement of equipment. The new NTIS should support much more rigorously the furthering of a strategic plan, encompassing all necessary QI bodies, accreditations, services and human capacity development organizations that are required to enable access to the international markets for the prioritized products. Beyond, the new NTIS had to consider a more holistic support mechanisms for the identified priority sectors: for example, to support the IT-software development sector, there is a need to strengthen the respective educational service providers; to set up incubators, to develop targeted subsidy schemes, to create specific access to finance packages for start-ups and to facilitate partnerships with major international software companies. Much more joint planning and interventions of relevant ministries need to be facilitated. The NTIS 2015 shows the good intention to draw lessons learned from the implementation of the NTIS However, the conclusions like inadequate resources, not be in priority at political level or less effective coordination among line agencies lack in-depth elaborations on how similar experiences will be prevented in the future. The lessons learnt deserve much more detailed attention as presently shown. The new Trade Policy 2015 emphasizes the promotion of trade in services and related intellectual property rights, but misses to dwell on International Agreements for Trade in Services (GATS) which offer a good input to substantiate the chapter in the new NTIS on trade in services. Overall, a more comprehensive chapter on the trade policy environment with specific reference to trade in services is missing. One important step forward could be the full implementation of the commitments to the WTO on the liberalization of the service sector. Institutional Hindrances for a Successful Export Promotion On the institutional level, the following issues did in the past hinder a successful implementation of the export strategy (see Reichert & Gautem, 2014): Inadequate human and institutional capacity for effective implementation support and resource mobilization, locally and internationally Inadequate inter-agency coordination Lack of proper monitoring and evaluation of trade-related policies and measures Missing capacities to harness optimal benefit from market access opportunities and supports under the differential provisions of the multilateral and regional trading system

9 56 Foreign Trade Review 52(1) Lack of a business-oriented and effective trade promotion centre Insufficient mainstreaming and coordination of trade policies with macro and sectorial policies (fiscal, monetary, investment, industrial and agricultural policies). Still in the new NTIS the implementation mechanism lacks adequate implementation orientation. Basis for the implementation should be (i) a joint action plan with all relevant ministries, (ii) an implementation mandate for the NIU to follow through on this joint action plan across the ministries and (iii) a specialized AfT group in the MoCS to mobilize international cooperation. Trade promotion which means a direct support to export associations and bussinesses is presently in the hand of the Trade and Export Promotion Centre, which functions as a semi-autonomous entity under the MoCS and has been assigned numerous tasks in fields like market research, trade statistics, export fair participation, market information services among others. However, its capacity is quite limited due to the scarce number of professionals in the organization, its bureaucratic decision-making structure and lack of promotional funds. The necessary reform of this institution to make it a business like organizations with internationally experienced professionals which really can support the private sector in penetrating new markets and can count with the necessary financial means is not an issue in the NTIS. Another important aspect of a successful NTIS is the allocation of an adequate budget. As such, the NTIS should give an orientation as to what budget is needed to secure its full implementation. The preparation of such a budget will also assist in the streamlining of the strategy: if the necessary financial resources are not available, even more focus within the strategy might be required. Aid for trade should be mobilized on product development ensuring a complete value chain process from production through the processing until the destination market. The strategy needs a strong buy-in from development partners synergizing efforts from government, private sector and donors. Engaging the private sector in the strategy implementation is crucial not only to add value through increasing the competitiveness of priority export products but also for strong and institutionalized advocacy in order to persuade government agencies to play its role in the arrangement and to implementing the identified actions in an effective way. Conclusions and Outlook The implementation of NTIS 2010 fell short of expectations mainly due to an only partial execution of recommended actions, especially in the area of product development. This was because of an unsatisfactory response and collaboration of responsible organizations, of a not strong enough advocacy from sector associations, of inadequate resources and the absence of result-based monitoring mechanism. Also and very importantly, the economic agenda could not get adequate priority at political level due to a prolonged transition period from civil war to a democratic system and a resulting

10 Richter 57 slow progress in legislative reforms that are key for the improvement of the environment for business, investment and trade development. Coordination among line agencies concerned to support the implementation of the strategy was found little effective resulting in a slow progress of the trade mainstreaming process and deficit accountability mechanisms to ensure effective implementation. Farm- and forest-based products potential for high value addition and international marketing have still to be developed along the value chains. Industrial products potential for integration into regional and global value chains as well as the service sectors potential (e.g., IT/BPO, health care, education) have still to be revealed. The on-going liberalization of services has offered a more levelled playing field for local and international providers. However, most service sectors in Nepal lack a focus on trade. Service sector-related policies are more often oriented towards fulfilling domestic requirements than promoting export. Hydro-power is highly potential, but not adequately developed, mainly because of low investment in generation and transmission as well as on-going bureaucracy obstacles. The Power Trade Agreement with India, growing interest of investors from various countries and several on-going significant projects provide a beacon of hope for sustained growth of energy. Under the condition of injecting adequate domestic resources and influx of foreign investments combined with national policy measures, hydropower could generate exports within a few years (most likely only after 2020) after meeting domestic requirements. The following cross-cutting issues still require intervention and would support the strengthening of a trade conducive environment: Trade capacity development including the areas of trade negotiation and facilitation Transport systems and infrastructure development Technical standards for products and services of export interest Sanitary and phyto-sanitary measures for exports of agro-forest-based products Protection and promotion of intellectual property rights for Nepalese goods and services Favourable framework conditions for the export of services. With so many bottlenecks with regard to supply side issues and the international marketing of goods, one has to come to the conclusion that the landlocked LDC Nepal will in the foreseeable future not be competitive in the international trade environment, with the exception of the cross-border trade with India. On the other hand, the export of labour services and tourism are sustaining and running the economy of the country. Therefore a radical change in the strategy of the country is indispensable and the focus has to be put on the export of services, including hydropower as the big potential sector of the future. Framework conditions for export of services have to be analyzed and streamlined according to WTO rules. Real existing potentials have to be studied in more depth and specific promotional policies for the service sector be developed and put in practice. Export orientation of an economy is a generic task for all sectors. Such a vision is still missing completely in Nepal.

11 58 Foreign Trade Review 52(1) In order to answer the thesis in the headline of this article: yes, promotion of exports of goods seems to be an impossible task under the prevailing conditions. Although Nepal as an LDC enjoys in most countries preferential market access 7 and with all efforts and local and international resources channeled into it, goods exports have not shown any major increase in the last 5 years and remain way below 1 Billion US$. 8 Instead of wasting efforts and budgets, policy should focus better to shape favorable framework conditions for the trade sector in general which would also benefit the export of goods in certain limits. However, trade in services have apparently a huge potential, but presently nor the necessary awareness nor the know-how on fixing the corresponding policies and designing adequate promotional activities seem to exist. On these grounds it can be prognosticated that the search process will prolong, but in one moment in time perception and knowledge will exist to turn around the national development and trade strategy emphasizing on export of services. Notes 1. This issue is a long discussed one but without conclusive results, as for example in a publication from 2006 (Kafle, 2006) and more recently Prasai (2014). 2. MoCS was mid-2016 divided in a Ministry of Commerce and a Ministry of Supply. 3. An official version has not yet been published. 4. A good compilation of these hindrances can be found in the supporting documents for the NTIS Following the Global Enabling Trade Report 2014 (World Economic Forum, 2014), Nepal ranks 3rd in the world with regard to market access and even ranks 2nd with regard to the availability of preferences in destination markets. 6. Economic Intelligence Unit (2015). Only for comparison: Guatemala with half of the inhabitants realizes exports in goods 10 times higher than Nepal. 7. Following the Global Enabling Trade Report 2014 (World Economic Forum) Nepal ranks 3rd in the world with regard to market access and even 2nd with regard to the availability of preferences in destination markets. 8. Economic Intelligence Unit, Country Report Nepal, 4th Quarter 2015, London, November 2015, p.6. Only for comparison: Guatemala with half of the inhabitants realizes exports in goods ten times higher than Nepal. References Bastakoti, B., & Seiler, A. (2015). WTO accession of LDCs in Asia Pacific. EU-Ministry of Commerce and Supply, Kathmandu. Economic Intelligence Unit. (November 2015). Country report Nepal, 4th Quarter 2015, London. European Commission. (2016). Trade in goods with Nepal. Brussels. Government of Nepal. (2010). Ministry of Commerce and Supply, Nepal Trade Integration Strategy 2010, Kathmandu.. (2015). Trade Policy Ministry of Commerce and Supply: Kathmandu. Government of Nepal. (2015). National Planning Commission, post disaster needs assessment, Kathmandu. Kafle, Shiba Devi. (2006). Effectiveness of trade policy in Nepal. Economic Journal of Nepal, 29(1),

12 Richter 59 Prasai, Laxmi Prasad. (2014). Foreign trade pattern of Nepal: Gravity model approach. NRB Working Paper No. 21, January Nepal Rastra Bank, Kathmandu. Reichert, Christoph, & Gautem, Tana (2014). Building capacity for trade development and NTIS implementation, Study report for GIZ, Kathmandu. World Economic Forum. (2014). Global Enabling Trade Report. Geneva: World Economic Forum. World Trade Organization. (2011). Aid for Trade and LDCs Starting to show results. Geneva.