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| Word "Nepali" in Devanagari Script. (Photo credit: Wikipedia) |
The economic muscle of the Nepali Diaspora is growing rapidly. In North America alone, the combined yearly income of the Nepali community, estimated to be around 300,000 strong, is about US $ 20 billion (2014 estimates), equivalent to the total annual GDP of Nepal. It is also estimated that the combined annual income of the Nepali Diaspora in the world (outside SAARC) is about 2.5-3 times the size of national annual GDP of Nepal. If we calculate the pension funds that the person of Nepali origin hold in their adopted lands, it perhaps amounts to more than five times Nepal’s annual GDP, signifying that even if a small percentage of these funds are invested in Nepal, it will be significant in Nepal’s context. Also, remittances from NRNs constitute 26 percent of Nepal’s GDP (2014 estimate)...... if the Nepali Diaspora is well organized and wishes to invest part of its economic resources in Nepal’s development, it can become a formidable partner for Nepal, and perhaps transform Nepali economy, in the manner Chinese, Indian, Korean and Irish Diaspora have transformed the economies of their native lands.
