As the Nepal Investment Summit 2019 draws closer, the Nepal Government is focusing its attention on drawing investments across key Nepal sectors. #investinnepal
According to the Investment Nepal Board (IBN), the government has given priority to the ‘energy’ sector in terms of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI).
Following next in line is ‘transport’ and ‘aviation’ sectors at second and third positions as per the list and costs shared by the investment summit board.
Sources say that energy is being given top preference to avoid an energy crisis in future, like the decade-long crisis until 2016.
The government has also come up with a policy of building 15,000 MW of electricity in the next ten years to ensure energy security.
The opening of Indian market for Nepal’s energy sector through recent policy guidelines by the Government of India has also given hopes for hydropower.
Nepal Energy Minister Barshaman Pun also encouraged independent power producers to build power plants, assuring them of market guarantee. The private sector aims to bring an FDI for 11 projects.
Similarly, a total of six transport projects including Kathmandu Ring Road of Bus Rapid Transit worth USD 9.7 billion will also be presented at the two-day event.
The Nepal aviation sector, the third priority of the summit, aims to draw USD 3.25 million or 12.3 percent of FDI for 63 projects worth USD 26.38 billion.
The other projects in the government list include:
IBN CEO Maha Prasad Adhikari said that the government was working on getting those bills endorsed before the investment summit.
As per NRB statistics, FDI in Nepal reached an average of about USD 33.74 million between 2001 and 2017. The country received an all-time high FDI of USD 13.50 million in 2017.
Further, an NRB study also revealed that Nepal received 0.01 percent of the total FDI in the world, while South Asia received 3.1 percent of the global FDI in 2016.
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