I had the very unique opportunity of swearing in as an attorney here at the U.S. Embassy in Kathmandu before Vice Consul Michael C. Coker, himself a former practicing attorney in Arizona and Georgia. It was he who welcomed me as a new member of the Maryland State Bar just before Christmas. He enjoyed playing the part of a judge on the Court of Appeals of Maryland. It was quite an experience for the two of us, but even more so for my wife. She also had the opportunity to attend and then celebrated with me afterwards. I wore a new three-piece suit I had tailor-made here in Kathmandu and a certain blue tie that the City Attorney of Little Rock had once gifted me on Christmas while I was the Office Assistant his office in Arkansas.
Unfortunately cameras were not allowed at the Embassy for security reasons, but I have attached a few pictures from our recent company picnic. We went to Dolalghat, just outside of Kathmandu, where there is a beach by the river and sun shines all day long. It was a perfect spot for a wintertime picnic. We played games, ate lots of delicious food, held spirited conversations, and imbibed a few drinks. I even won an award.
I continue to meet new people in Nepal and foster my existing relationships with my colleagues and other contacts here. I enjoyed meeting Vice Consul Coker and other diplomats from the U.S. Embassy here. I met an American named Brian who sells bacon in Kathmandu. I also had the opportunity to meet some of the international journalists and writers who live and work in Nepal. It is interesting to learn from the perspective of those who are entrusted to be the world’s lens into Nepal.
I also have had tea with one of Nepal’s former Attorneys General. He served what has now, in these politically turbulent times, become an unusually long time as Nepal’s top solicitor and legal advisor to Government of Nepal. We talked about the recent changes to Nepal’s judiciary, Nepal’s new constitution, and the evolution of Nepal’s legal education system. We also talked about the 2000 U.S. elections and the time that he had met former U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno.
This month marked my first client referral. Thanks to my membership in the American Bar Association’s Section on International Law, a law partner at the Shanghai office of K&L Gates sent a potential client my way who wants some help expanding their business in Nepal. I arranged a meeting with their representative at our law offices and hope that it marks the beginning of a long, fruitful attorney-client relationship. I am grateful to the ABA for this opportunity and K&L Gates Shanghai for the introduction.
I am having a lot of fun here in Nepal and learning an awful lot. Lately, I have been working with a New York attorney to help a client raise some funds in the U.S. for some much needed hydroelectric power development here in Nepal. I have also recently drafted an engineering, procurement, and construction contract for an international non-governmental organization. I have brainstormed with another of my law firm’s long-time client about how to navigate the unique regulatory environment that is Nepal’s foreign investment regime.
Just yesterday, I helped one of my firm’s law partners draft an article, advocating for reform of some of these regulations and procedures, which will be published in a local business magazine. For example, Nepal’s Foreign Investment and Technology Transfer Act and its Foreign Exchange Regulation Act place the responsibility of approving foreign investment squarely in the purview of the Department of Industry within Nepal’s Ministry of Industries. The Nepal Rastra Bank, Nepal’s Central Bank, however also requires foreign investors to seek a secondary approval from the Bank. It is unclear what value is added by this second layer approval or what additional enforcement goals are achieved by the Bank’s involvement. What is clear, according to the attorney with more 30 years of experience in Nepal, is that it has discouraged some past foreign investors.
I also had the opportunity to sit down with the Chairman and Managing Director of an already established energy company operating in Nepal. He explained that the shares of successful hydropower companies in Nepal always sell out because they can offer a good return on investment,but more participation in the market by the Nepali investors would help encourage more confidence in foreign investors as well.
The Chairman’s biggest concern, though, was the lack of vision or long-term commitment from the Government of Nepal. He has heard for the last 30 years the claims about Nepal’s great untapped hydroelectric potential and a clean, energy independent future. As Nepal has rushed headlong into modernization, there also has grown a great demand for new electricity. This unmet demand is evident whenever the Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA), Nepal’s public and only electric utility company, announces another loadshedding schedule. Loadshedding is the name given to the planned rolling power cuts that the NEA forces on its customers because of the shortage of energy supply. Now, during the dry season, service areas of the NES are hit with up to 14 hours a day without electricity. The Chairman told me that the energy suppliers are ready to help the government build electricity transmission infrastructure, even up to Nepal’s borders, if only the government would take the initiative. The Government of Nepal could then sit back and collect its share in taxes or commissions.
One day the promise of a New Nepal will be fulfilled. There will new local elections: the first in more than twenty years. I recently read a book by Daron Acemoglu and James Robinson called Why Nations Fail: The Origin of Power, Prosperity, and Poverty. The authors drew a direct link between “inclusive political and economic institutions” and prosperity and the alternative link between “extractive political and economic institutions” and poverty. They opened the book by examining the differences between towns on different sides of the US-Mexico border. This example, they argued, cuts against the prevailing idea that prosperity is somehow determined solely by religion, ethnicity, or culture. Acemoglu and Robinson explained that “inclusive economic institutions” are those “that enforce property rights, create a level playing field, and encourage investments in new technologies and skills are more conducive to economic growth than extractive economic institutions that are structured to extract resources from the many by the few. . . . Inclusive economic institutions, are in turn supported by, and support, inclusive political institutions,” that “distribute political power widely in a pluralistic manner and are able to achieve some amount of political centralization so as to establish law and order, the foundations of secure property rights, and an inclusive market economy.” Extractive political institutions are those that concentrated power in the hands of a few and are reinforced by extractive economic institutions that are built on the systematic exploitation of the status quo rather than innovation. Drawing on examples from Venice, Peru, Botswana, and the American South, the authors explained “sustained economic growth requires innovation” and “innovation cannot be decoupled from creative destruction, which replaces the old with the new in the economic realm and also destabilizes established power relations in politics.”
I hope Acemoglu and Robinson are right. Nepal was mentioned by the authors several times as a destabilized place. I am hopefully curious to see whether the implementation of more inclusive institutions; envisioned by Nepal’s new Constitution (as amended) and new local elections; bring about a new era of prosperity for Nepal. In the meantime, I am blessed that to have so many amazing opportunities to learn new things, to be surrounded by supportive people, and presented with new and unique challenges every week.