Binod Kumar Chaudhary, one of the biggest industrialists of the nation, handed over the CNI presidency to Basnet at its 10th annual general meeting, which was held recently. The move was unanimously approved by the CNI members.

The CNI, one of the largest associations of the private sector industrialists, is all set to embark on a three-year journey under Basnet’s leadership.

As Narendra Kumar Basnet was serving as the senior vice president of the CNI, he will not be a new name in the confederation and in the Nepalese economic sector. A former high ranking civil officer, Basnet is the Chairman of Bank of Kathmandu and is also the president of Nepal-USA Chamber of Commerce and Industries.

The leadership change at the CNI comes at a time when the nation’s economy has been suffering on many accounts, due mainly to political crisis, power crisis and severe labor issues.

Basnet has vowed to continue with the previous agenda of the confederation, along with taking additional steps in the direction of attracting foreign direct investment, creating ways for employment generation and trying to solve the current issues of the industrial sector.

Basnet also said that he would work very hard to give the country’s industrial sector a much needed performance boost.

Chaudhary will now be the CNI’s president emeritus. Replacing Chaudhary as the center of attention at CNI would be a difficult job even for the veteran industrialist. But having proved his leadership skills at various organizations, Basnet is looking forward to accomplish the difficult task in the midst of all the economic turmoil.

“Leading the CNI will be a difficult job, I would do everything in my authority to ensure that enthusiasm remains high among industrialists,” said the newly appointed CNI president.

“Due to critical political conditions, the industrial sector of the nation is suffering heavily and is moving in the opposite direction. The investors’ confidence is also decreasing. But, on the other hand, possibilities are also very high. So I will work in making the investment environment better by holding talks with all the concerned stakeholders,” he said.

Prime Minister Baburam Bhattarai inaugurated the AGM and Nobel laureate Professor Muhammad Yunus from Bangladesh was the guest of honor at the two-day long event.

“Although some 70 percent of the investment in the country is made by the private sector, the government is still not serious about the private sector’s problems,” said Chaudhary at the event.

“We are worried over the worsening investment climate in the country,” he added.

Chaudhary also assured a broadened role of CNI to help the Nepalese economy towards prosperity.

“As an organization that has reached this level of success after going through many ups and downs, CNI will focus on social business -- non dividend-making company -- designed to contribute to the overall social development,” said Chaudhary, according to Republica.

Muhammad Yunus also gave an influential speech at the event about the corporate social responsibility to encourage firms for social investment.

Prime Minister Dr Baburam Bhattarai, who inaugurated the event, expressed his unhappiness over the trend of seeking returns by both industrialists and workers without fulfilling all their responsibilities and requested to them to put an end to the game of blaming everything on the government and politics.

He urged labors and businessmen to work hard and expect returns on their merits and hard work and requested private sector to play the role of a model for economic development.

Businessmen at the event highlighted the need of favorable acts to make investment environment healthier.