The government has decided to hold Investment Summit in the last week of March in a bid to attract foreign investment in the country.

A Cabinet meeting has decided to hold the ‘Investment Summit-2019’ on March 29-30, Minister for Communications and Information Technology and government spokesperson Gokul Prasad Banskota said.

Speaking at a press conference organised to make public the decisions of the government on Thursday, Banskota clarified the summit will be totally different from the one organised earlier following the devastating earthquake.

“This Investment Summit is being organised in a changed political context in Nepal. We will urge foreign countries and donor agencies to invest in Nepal to help realise the dream of ‘Prosperous Nepal: Happy Nepali’,” he said.

Earlier on April 25, 2015, the government had organised a donor summit for the reconstruction following the devastating earthquake. He said that preparations for summit have already been started.

Nepal-based foreign missions briefed on investment summit

The government on Wednesday had invited representatives of Nepal-based foreign missions and donor agencies to Ministry of Finance to brief about the investment summit. The representatives were asked to propagate the information about investment summit to their respective government and business communities.

The meeting was attended by representatives from China, India, USA, Finland, along with international agencies such as World Bank, Asia Development Bank, United Nations, among other development partners.

It is learnt that the representatives present at the meeting expressed their willingness to make the Nepal Investment Summit successful and bring adequate fund to the country. The representatives pointed out reforms needed in Nepal to attract the foreign investors. They highlighted the problems prevalent in acquiring land and much-needed reforms in relevant legal process to attract foreign investors.

In response, Finance Minister Yubaraj Khatiwada had expressed commitment to reform Nepal’s investment-related laws as per the international standard. He also said that Nepal now has adequate human resources pooled through enhanced quality education and skilled migrant labours who returned from foreign employment.