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Yubaraj Khatiwada is the right man to lead the Ministry of Finance. Not just because he has a Phd in monetary economics from the pres­tigious Delhi School of Economics—although that is no small consideration in a country where this vital portfolio has time and again gone to those with limited economic nous. The new finance minister has a record of helping steady the economy through diffi­cult times, particularly during his previous stint as the central bank governor.

Khatiwada takes over as finance minister when the economy is again hitting turbulence. Over the past one decade, the country’s trade deficit has declined by a yearly average of 21.9 percent. It has notched up over Rs 90 billion of deficit in the first five months of the current fiscal alone.

Foreign remittance, Nepal’s one sure source of steady income, is drying up. In the five months of the current fiscal, remittance is down 0.8 percent compared to the same period last year—the first negative remittance growth rate in over a decade. Recurrent expenditures are shooting up, productive spending is stagnant, and another real estate bubble is building. Even someone with Khatiwada’s stellar credentials could struggle to bring the twisted economy in shape.

But Khatiwada seems to be in a mood to make a good fist of it. In his first declaration as finance minister, he vowed to bring all government transactions online from the upcoming Nepali New Year. This, if can be done, could make a significant dent on bureaucratic corruption and reduce money-laundering, a growing problem. As a representative of the unified left gov­ernment, Khatiwada added, he is as committed to the left alliance’s electoral commitment of common pros­perity. Moreover, he said he was determined to bring Nepal’s economy back on track. But therein also lies the problem.

CPN-UML, the senior partner in the recent merger with CPN (Maoist Center), has long been seen as a par­ty that protects cartels and syndicates. It also has a vast patronage network to look after. This raises a legitimate fear: Will the new finance minister be allowed to work freely? Or will he be used primarily as a smokescreen behind which the various vested interests of the new communist juggernaut can hide?

Having shown the courage to sideline his cronies who were all angling for the finance ministry, Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli would do well to give his cho­sen one enough room to work in the country’s interest.

Even at the risk of sounding obsequious, you have to give credit to the government of KP Sharma Oli where it is due. The appointment of clean and efficient ministers, a couple of very wise picks as chiefs of the two police forces, recent exercise in balanced diplomacy and, now, the determi­nation it has shown to wipe out transport cartels are all highly admirable. Particularly the last bit. It could not have been easy for Prime Minister Oli, the chief of CPN-UML, a party that has traditionally provided patronage to transport cartels, to suddenly crack down on them in public interest.

These government actions hint at the prime min­ister’s determination to leave behind a strong legacy, one marked by accountable governance and tangible improvement in people’s daily lives. The country des­perately needed such firm leadership. Nearly every study of the growing incidents of road accidents in Nepal’s blood-soaked highways has pointed to the rickety state of long-distance passenger buses as one of the major culprits. In the fiscal 2016-17, there were an average of 28 road acci­dents, and six deaths, in the country every single day. Yet this brazen crime on the part of the trans­port cartels that refused to allow new vehicles of other private operators on the roads was ignored by successive governments.

These cartels flourished under the protection of top political leaders, despite repeated Supreme Court rulings to ban them, the first of them coming over a decade ago. Only now has the government gathered the spunk to take them on. Better late than never. We can only hope that the government stands firm and does not back down to the cartels’ pressure tactics. But even that is not enough.

There are entrenched cartels and syndicates in other sectors too. For instance one study suggests that the prices of fruits and vegetables increase up to five-fold from what the farmers get for their produce, again thanks to the cartels in this market. There are many formal or informal cartels in health and education sec­tors as well, again adversely affecting people’s well-be­ing. May sound superfluous, but the government has full public support to bust these cartels and to ensure free and fair competition in all goods and services. These are exciting times indeed.

 “Why isn’t Thamel, which is at the heart of Nepali tourism, open 24 hours a day?” The questioner was visibly angry at the government’s inability to do so. The event was a public hearing in Thamel of top cops and administrators of Kathmandu district on a recent Friday evening. The incoming chief of Nepal Police, Sarbendra Khanal, who was instrumental in making Thamel a no-vehicle zone, must have heard this question many times. It is just a sliver of the immense challenge he will face.

Khanal takes over as the Inspector General of Nepal Police as the country is making a difficult transition to a federal structure. Nepal Police, which is still highly centralized, is struggling with this drastic change. The number of crimes this fiscal is up, by eight percent from the previous year, with murders and rapes accounting for most of the increase. There are now an average of over three rapes in Nepal every day. It falls on Khanal to enhance public trust in his institution, to sincerely implement the slogan of “Police My Friend”. A trusted police force is also an effective one.

You wouldn’t bet against Khanal. After all, he has had a stellar career. His investigative skills were amply demonstrated when he looked into and led the suc­cessful prosecution of national footballers enmeshed in match-fixing. Besides his investigative skills, Khanal was as noted for his tough line against notorious dons. Khanal, who had received top marks in the internal evaluation of Nepal Police to choose the new police chief, is one of the rare Inspector Generals whose appointment was based largely on merit. This will, hopefully, set a strong precedent.

It would have been better still had Khanal been first appointed the Assistant Inspector General (AIG), the second highest rank, and promoted to Inspector Gen­eral after some time. But as all serving AIGs had retired at the same time, the government had no option but to choose from among the third-highest ranking Depu­ty Inspector Generals (DIGs), Khanal among them. To ensure that there is no such void in the future, and that the next police chief is well trained as an administrator, the provision of compulsory retirement after 30 years of service has to be modified. The sooner the better.

The good news is that merit has prevailed over poli­ticking in the appointment of the Nepal Police chief, as well as the new chief of the Armed Police Force, which is now led by Shailendra Khanal, another competent hand. This bodes well in these uncertain times.

What difference a couple of years make in diplomacy! Two years ago, India had imposed a crippling economic block­ade on Nepal to express its dissatisfac­tion with our new constitution. The understanding in New Delhi was that while its concerns were neglect­ed in the new charter, the statute had the blessings of Beijing. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his henchmen seemed determined to teach a harsh lesson in geopolitics to the ‘China-hugging commies’ of Nepal, with Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli at their vanguard.

Two years later, the same Modi is rolling out the red carpet for Oli as he prepares to welcome perhaps the strongest prime minister in Nepal’s democratic histo­ry. Having badly bungled its relations with Nepal—sup­posedly one of its closest friends in terms of cultural similarities and people-to-people ties—and pushing the Himalayan country into ‘China’s open arms’, New Delhi, we now hear, is in a mood for a ‘course correc­tion’. Hence the lavish reception for Oli and India’s new-found interest in reviewing bilateral relations, including a rewriting of the infamous 1950 treaty.

Oli, with his new-found strength, could argu­ably have broken the outdated tradition of a Nepali prime minister always making New Delhi his first foreign stop, as if on a solemn pilgrimage to please the holy deities due south. But Oli perhaps thought it unwise to rock the geopolitical boat this early in his tenure. He did however commit not to sign any agree­ment in India that “goes against national interest and disgraces our country”. We hope the prime minister honors his words.

Reportedly, he will leave for China not long after returning to Nepal on April 8. He is scheduled to meet President Xi Jinping at the sidelines of the Boao Forum in Hainan. After inking multiple pacts with India, PM Oli, in his subsequent visit to China, is expected to sign another slew of agreements to operationalize the land­mark trade and transit agreement of 2016. He has to be extremely careful though. His ability (or lack there­of) to balance India and China will define not just his government leadership-Round Two but also his larger political legacy—long after he is gone from the scene.

At this early stage, he deserves our benefit of the doubt, as we have argued before. It would be wise to wait for a while before we judge his tenure, including his foreign policy. A single India or China trip does not a long-term strategic vision make.