KATHMANDU, Dec 22: The 2nd Second Nepal Infrastructure Summit 2017 is scheduled for February 19-20, 2017.

The summit is being organized jointly by Confederation of Nepalese Industries(CNI), an apex body of the country's manufacturing and service Industries and Youth Community for Nepalese Contractors (YCNC) in association with different government agencies as well as bilateral and multilateral development partners, CNI President Haribhakta Sharma told a press meet in Kathmandu on Wednesday.

Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal (Prachanda) is scheduled to inaugurate the summit as the chief guest. Similarly, Suresh Prabhakar Prabhu, Railway Minister of the Government of India will be the Guest of Honor and keynote speaker of the summit, he said, adding that investors, consulting service providers, builders, thought leaders, government agencies, diplomats, development partners, legislators, non-state actors from South Asia, South East Asia and other countries will be participating in the summit. 

The Summit will brainstorm on Infrastructure: The Big Picture, Barriers and Constraints in attracting Private and Public Investment, Expediting Public Private Partnership (PPP), Financing Resilient Infrastructure, and Successful PPP Model: Global and regional Perspective, according to the organizers.

Nepal suffers an infrastructure deficit on an epic scale, stifling vast human potentials on several fronts. A World Bank estimate of the country's 'infrastructure gap' pegs investment needs at between 8 percent and 12 percent of national income this decade. Nepal's medium-term ambition is to become a middle-income nation by 2030, while graduating out of the status of a least developed country (LDC) by 2022. 

"This is only possible with high growth rates sustained by productive capital formation," Sharma said, adding that this demands rapid development of infrastructure driven largely by a private sector -- local and foreign -- that has the technical, managerial and financial clout to deliver efficient, high-quality and cost-effective results on the ground. 

The 2nd Nepal Infrastructure Summit aims at facilitating discourse on indispensability of private sector in infrastructure development, he added. "The primary objective of the summit is to attract large scale private investment in areas of Nepal's core needs and strengths; forge stronger networks and alliances in the region for seamless connectivity; and raise awareness on why investment in infrastructure needs an urgent push in the country."

The summit will showcase the project bank developed by Investment Board Nepal (IBN) which will comprise around 50 viable infrastructure projects. 

In the meantime, CNI in collaboration with Idea Studio, will collect various infrastructure ideas from different sectors of the communities to come up with a creative and an innovative infrastructure (transportation, irrigation, energy, housing, digital etc) IDEAs to solve the existing epic infrastructure deficit and address to the possible future need for our country's development.

The summit will focus on the strategic vision of infrastructure, value proposition, competitiveness, policy particularly on land acquisition and environmental clearance; and regulatory enablers and business environment, Sharma informed. "The event will consolidate and build upon the achievements of the first Nepal Infrastructure Summit held in November 2014," he added.

 
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