According to Department of Industries (DoI), aspirant Chinese investors registered 58 joint venture industries with a total project cost of Rs 731.25 million in 2009/10. If the projects materialized, Nepal will receive the new Chinese investments worth Rs 715.75 million, officials said. [break]These industries are estimated to generate new employment opportunities for 2,791 persons.
The volume of investment commitment received during the year, however, is lower than what the country received a year ago though. In 2008/09, aspirant Chinese investors had registered 71 joint venture projects with a total project cost of Rs 1.16 billion. The projects were expected to create employment opportunities to 4,945 individuals.
DoI officials said foreign investment has increased mainly in sectors like information technology (IT), hotel, restaurant, tourism, cargo business, training centers and education institutes over the last couple of years.
"During this period, China has left behind well over three dozen countries investing in Nepal, including India," said Dhruba Raj Sharma, spokesperson of DoI. He informed Republica that the reputed JV companies still continue to shy away from investing in Nepal due to lack of conducive industrial climate in the country.
India registered just 27 JV projects in 2009/10. Investors from India had registered 34 industries a year ago in 2008/09. However, the southern neighbor is still the leading investor in Nepal in terms of volume of investment. Although lesser in number, the total Indian JV projects registered in 2009/10 promise to invest Rs 7.78 billion in the country. Investment commitment from the Indian entrepreneurs had totaled Rs 4.09 billion in 2008/09.
Similarly, South Korea, USA and UK remained as the third, fourth and fifth largest countries registering 20, 10 and 6 JV projects respectively during the year.
DoI data further shows that a total of 171 joint venture companies were registered during the year. They are expected to bring in foreign capital worth Rs 15.85 billion in the country, creating employment opportunity for 11,108 persons.
Services and tourism, under which 72 and 50 industries were registered respectively, stood as the sectors luring biggest foreign investment projects during the year.
However, in term of investment, energy and manufacturing sectors attracted biggest investment of Rs 9.96 billion and Rs 3.75 billion respectively. Investors from a total of 34 countries had registered industries in Nepal in 2009/10.
Total joint-venture industries registered in Nepal so far has reached 1,898 and they were projected to have brought in Rs 142.82 billion and providing employment to 144,513 persons. However, the data does not reflect the JV closure and investments withdrawn from the country.
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