Dr. Bhola Nath Chalise was named this year’s Freedom Champion in the third Asia Liberty Forum (ALF) held in Kathmandu from Jan 8-10, 2015. He was recognized and honored for his continuous efforts in promoting individual and economic freedom in Nepal on the closing dinner of the event which took place today. During the closing address, Dr. Chalise highlighted some of the major challenges to promoting liberalism in Asia.
The Asia Liberty Forum (ALF) is an annual gathering of over 300 individuals from around the world who have been working towards promoting free and prosperous societies. Organized by the Samriddhi , The Prosperity Foundation and Asia Centre for Enterprise, this year’s ALF added a new dimension to the event by felicitating a certain freedom champion in the host country.
Dr. Chalise was felicitated for his contribution in formulating sound economic policies during his service as the Under-secretary, Joint-Secretary and the Secretary of Ministry of Industry of Nepal. He was largely responsible for formulating and implementing the Industrial Enterprise Act and the Foreign Investment and Technology Transfer Act, 1992 which provided the vision for economic liberalization in Nepal in the early nineties. During his service as the Secretary of Ministry of Industry, Dr. Chalise also played a major role in bringing about the Company Act of 1997, which created a more favorable environment for entrepreneurs to start businesses back then.
Post his service and into retirement, Dr. Chalise continued to promote liberal values which he believes is the only way to break the monopoly of bureaucratic power and to try and reduce one’s dependence on the government. He continued to foster the ideas of economic freedom in young minds by joining hands with the Samriddhi Foundation via Arthalaya– School of Economics and Entrepreneurship and Neetishala – Public Policy Discourse, which deals with policy regimes and its impact on the economy. Dr. Chalise also wrote the introduction of the Nepali translation of “Road to Serfdom” by F. Hayek, published also by Samriddhi, The Prosperity Foundation.
He has published a number of articles through which he has defined and defended his stance on liberty. He helped elaborate on the benefits of privatization and has also written on the role of government, bureaucracy and civil society to help foster democracy. During the closing address, he delivered at the forum, he said “Never before has private entrepreneurship and wealth creation caught the imagination of billions as it has done in Asia today. Our job to promote freedom is filled with opportunities, and so many of you present today are the beacons of hope.”
Dr. Chalise’s felicitation ceremony ended as Dan Grossman, Chairman of the Board, Atlas Economic Research Foundation, USA presented to Dr. Bhola Chalise a token of appreciation for his lifelong drive for promoting freedom in this Himalayan Nation.
Some of Dr. Chalise’s articles have been linked here:
‘Youth as Change Agents in Nepal’ http://www.bpthoughtacademy.org/article/41/youth-as-change-agents-in-nepals-growth,
‘Privatize Privatization’ http://nepalitimes.com/~nepalitimes/news.php?id=11333