Planning History

During the Rana regime (1846-1951), no serious attempts were made until 1930 for initiating economic development on a systematic basis. It was only in 1935 that a development agency was constituted by the name of UDYOG PARISHAD (Development Board). The primary function of which was stated to be one of helping in various ways the growth and expansion of agricultural, industrial and commercial activities in the country. The Development Board was soon followed by a host of specialized development agencies such as KRISHI PARISHAD (Agricultural Board), KHANI ADDA (Bureau of Mines, KATHMAL REPORT ADDA (Department of Forests), NEPALI KAPADA RA GHARELU ILAM PRACHAR ADDA (Department of Cottage Industry), etc. But all that was done through these agencies in a spasmodic and haphazard manner proved to too inadequate for bringing about any perceptible change in all-pervasive state of economic backwardness inherited from past decades of negligence. There was also an announcement of what was then known to be a 20-Year Plan just before the outbreak of the Second World War. Nothing was, however, heard of what was done about it in practice until a National Planning Committee was set up in 1949 for formulating a 15-Year Plan, which as the earlier one, disappeared along with the dissolution of the National Planning Committee itself.

The economic conditions of the country persisted more or less in the same state of stagnation for a few years even after the political change in 1951, though the problems of economic planning and development had all along been a popular subject of discussion both within and outside the Government. The unstable Governments, which followed the political change in 1951,had gone out of existence one after another in close succession before they could formulate any long-term plans in their proper perspective. The economic plan in Nepal may be said to have taken some formative shape only towards the end of 1955 when the draft outline of the Five Year Plan was announced by a Royal Proclamation. It is believed that the Draft Plan was also prepared primarily for its being incorporated in the Colombo Plan, when Nepal attended its Singapore session on October 17, 1955 as a full-fledged member-country. It took about a year when at last the final draft of the Five Year Plan was announced on September21, 1956. The Five Year Plan came to its premature end in July, 1961. The year following the termination of the Plan was treated as an interim period when many changes were made in the development projects carried over from the Plan. After the lapse of a year, a second Plan called the Three Year Plan was put into operation from the fiscal year of 1962-1963. The Three Year Plan was formulated by a high level National Planning Council constituted in February, 1961 under the chairmanship of His Majesty’s the King himself.

A planning approach to development in Nepal began in 1956 with the formulation of the First Plan (1956-1961). Nine periodic plans have been implemented and the Tenth Plan (2002-2007) is under implementation.

The first four plans emphasized the development of infrastructure, especially roads and electricity. However, achievement of the plan targets was poor.

Under the Fifth and Sixth Plans, emphasis shifted towards agriculture and industry sectors. Poverty reduction has been explicitly stated as a development objective since the Sixth Plan (1980-1985).

Poverty alleviation was one of the major objective of the Eighth Plan (1992-1997), the first national plan formulated after restoration of multi-party democracy in the year 1991.

The Ninth Plan (1997-2002) adopted poverty alleviation as its sole objective.

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