KATHMANDU, May 18: Nepal received foreign investment commitments amounting to over Rs 53 billion  in the first 10 months (mid-July to mid-April) of the current fiscal year 2023/24.

According to the Department of Industry (DoI), these commitments cover 420 projects, including both new and existing projects.

Investment commitments for new projects have reached Rs 41.38 billion through 307 projects, while Rs 9.47 billion has been pledged for 92 established projects through Share Purchase Agreements (SPA) and Share Subscription Agreement (SSA). Following the government’s investment summit held on April 28 and 29, commitments worth Rs 13.85 billion were made in late April alone.

Out of the total commitments, Rs 2.15 billion were approved through the automated system of the DoI, operational since April 28. This system facilitates automatic approval for foreign investments up to Rs 500 million.

Foreign investments up to Rs 500 million are now automatically approved through the Department of Industry's (DoI) automated system. According to the DoI, 47 percent of the foreign investment pledges received in the first 10 months of the current fiscal year were in the tourism sector.

Similarly, 34 percent of the investments were committed to the service industry, 11 percent to the manufacturing sector, 3 percent to the information and technology industry, 2 percent to the infrastructure and agriculture sector, and 1 percent to the mining and energy sector.

This year’s investment commitments are nearly Rs 12 billion higher than the Rs 41 billion pledged by mid-April of last fiscal year. 

Arjun Sen Oli, Information Officer of the DoI, noted that the current fiscal year's investment summit alone collected commitments exceeding Rs 16 billion across various projects.

Additionally, Rs 241.7 million have been returned to the investors by mid-April. Foreign investors have repatriated profits from their Nepal-based projects amounting to Rs 9.29 billion during this period. Furthermore, the Department of Customs data show that investors have taken back about Rs 3.5 billion in royalties by mid-April of the current fiscal year.