Infrastructure
Nepal in a Nutshell
Infrastructure
Nepal’s infrastructure is fairly poor developed. There is only one international airport, the Tribuvan International Airport in Kathmandu. However, there are 47 inland airports, including the STOL-Airports (short take-off and landing) which do not meet important security and safety requirements. Accidents with aircrafts, especially at the STOL-airports are common.
There is only one railway path, operated by the Nepal Railway Corporation, reaching a length of 59 km.
The road system is little developed, only 10,000 km of paved road and 7,100 km of non-paved road exist. The most important East-West connection is also part of the Asian Highway 2 and the only existing connection to China is the Araniko Highway. The hilly and mountainous terrain in the northern two-thirds of the country has made the building of roads and other infrastructure very difficult. More than one third of Nepal’s population is at least two hours walking distance away from all-season road network. 15 out of 75 district headquarters are not connected by road. Besides that, 60 % of the road system is not operable during the rainy season. This poorly established infrastructure system makes access to markets, schools, and health clinics a major problem. It also leads to long time delays in traffic and the condition of the roads results in many traffic accidents. Shortage in terms of fuel and LP-gas can also lead to transportation problems in the capital city as well as in the whole Kathmandu valley. Moreover, especially in the South of the country, riots, police roadblocks and demonstrations can lead to interruptions of transportation.
Still the main way of transportation is on foot. A big system of paths pervades the whole country; rivers can be passed by steel suspension bridges. Transportation of goods is still nowadays overcome by carriers on small footpaths.
Public transportation in bigger cities like Kathmandu and Pokhara includes buses, taxis, minivans and rikshas.
Economy
Nepals GDP was estimated at over $17,921 billion in 2010, with the primary sector of agriculture making up approx. 37 %, services comprising approx. 49 %, followed by approx. 16 % from industry. 70 % of Nepal’s population is working in the agricultural sector, although the proportion of the GDP is only roughly 37 %. The main harvested crops are rice, which takes up 55 % of the usable area, potatoes,
corn, wheat, sugarcane, tea, root crops, milk and buffalo meat. 80 % of the exported goods are agricultural products. The main export partners are the European Union, the US and Germany. However, the agriculturally usable area is vanishing due to the monsoon and deforestation, which both lead to erosion of the soil.
Agriculture as the biggest employment sector is followed by services and lastly manufacturing and craft-based industry. Industry mainly involves the processing of agricultural produce, including jute, sugarcane, tobacco and grain.
Nepal’s economy growth continues to be adversely affected by the uncertain political situation. Tourism remains one of the bigger sectors of income in Nepal, contributing 3 % of the GDP in 2012. Despite the political instability and problems, tourism continues to grow. 2012 a number of 598,204 international tourists and therefore a growth of 10 % to the previous year could be achieved.
Nonetheless, the rate of unemployment or underemployment affects half of the working-age population. Therefore, many Nepali choose to migrate to other countries, like India, Quatar, United States, Thailand and many other countries to find work.
The proportion of poor people has declined substantially since 2003. The percentage of people living below the international poverty line (people earning less than US$1.25 per day) has halved in seven years. This should not give a false picture; poverty is still acute, with a per-capita income of around US$1000 per year. As in many developed and developing countries the distribution of wealth shows that the highest 10 % of households control 39.1 % of the national wealth and the lowest 10 % only 2.6 %.
Many factors including the political instability, lack of infrastructure, the challenging geography and geological events are some of the reasons of the inhibition of Nepal’s economic growth and development.