A high-ranking Ministry of Finance official, who recently participated in an interaction program with representatives of leading export/export banks held in Bali, Indonesia, told myrepublica.com that banks have shown keen interest in investing in Nepal, but urged the government to produce a list of potential projects.
"Leading investment banks from the US, China, India, the UK and Korea seem eager to invest in various sectors, but they stressed that they want to see the list of saleable projects along with their preliminary feasibility studies," said the official.
The message of the meeting was clear, he said. Nepal did not lack donors and investors, but lacked saleable projects that could be attractive to them.
He further said the Ministry of Finance recently asked each ministry to prepare a list 10 probable projects that can be presented before international investors, and forward them to the finance ministry.
MoF is hopeful that it will have a list of at least 25 attractive and saleable projects within the next six months, he said. The official said such saleable projects will be mainly in the infrastructure sector, focusing primarily on hydropower, airports and fast-track road connections.
As per existing law, all investments in infrastructure projects will have to be under the BOOT (built, own, operate and transfer) policy and all projects build under BOOT have to be handed over to the state after 30 years of operation.
However, some of the key investors have hinted that a 30-year operation period might be an obstruction in luring potential investment, particularly in infrastructure like hydropower.
Some of the investors have said in private that a 30-year operation period might not be enough to secure adequate return on investments, particularly in big and risky projects, and they have suggested that there should be a provision for extending the period if volume of investment crosses some specific mark.
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