Role of Manufacturing in Employment Generation in Nepal: Experiences and Lessons for the Future

South Asia faces uneven and transformative growth problems, despite excellent average growth performance. The threat of secular stagnation and prolonged crisis in today’s global economic system are adding complexities to these economies. It is evidently clear that even after many years of the global financial crisis countries are confroned with both cyclical and structural predicaments, emanating from, among others, declining trade flows, stagnating investment, diminishing productivity growth and above all aggravating unemployment and underemployment (UNDESA 2016). Such a phenomenon by raising questions on the efficacy of neo-liberal policy regimes indicate the need for devolving alternatives for overcoming from such deepening problems (Ocampo 2011; Korz 2015; Khanal 2017). Grounded on empirical evidence, recent literature emphasizes on the need of reviving, among others, the manufacturing sector for revitalizing the real sector to generate productive employment, key toward inclusive growth and sustained development (UNIDO 2013; Salazar-Xirinachs et al. 2014). Equally noticeably, inclusive and sustainable industrialization forms one of the main ingredients of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).