Making a presentation of programs foreseen for the investment year, Federation of Nepalese Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FNCCI), which will be acting as a partner institution to implement the investment year, said identification of potential investors, networking with them, organizing an international investment conference, forging political consensus on investment issues and amendment of policies and laws are among the major features of the investment year.[break]
“We will prepare profiles of 50 projects to lure foreign investment. However, we have set the target to enter into investment agreements for at least 10 mega projects for FDI,” said Hemant Dabadi, director general of FNCCI, at an interaction with economic journalists on Monday.
Dabadi said five sectors - water resources, agriculture, infrastructure, tourism, and mining & services - are the key sectors that will be promoted during the investment year campaign.
“We have potentials to boost investment in these sectors at a time when Nepal´s share is less than 0.0004 percent of the total global FDI worth US$ 1.24 trillion in 2010,” said Dabadi.
Radesh Pant, chief executive officer at Investment Board, said investment year will prove crucial to narrow down existing resource gap by attracting FDI for the development of hydropower and infrastructure in the country. “Time is running out for us to bring in more FDI in the country by managing existing power crunch and labor unrest through political consensus,” said Pant.
Suraj Vaidya, president of FNCCI, said Nepal has to focus on luring FDI from India and China becaue out-bound investment from these close neighbors is also significantly high in recent years.
“We need to immediately speed up process to implement large hydro projects and reduce the power shortage paving way for more FDI in the country. This is a positive sign for a conducive investment climate in the country that labor unions are also acknowledging the importance of economic development,” Vaidya said.
He stressed on the need to develop 50 projects in the investment year as national projects.
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