Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli has wooed foreign investors to bring investment in Nepal and tap into the immense unexploited potentialities the country holds. He said the time is ripe for investment in Nepal as the country has achieved political stability with the government supported by a two-thirds majority after institutionalising the achievements made after successful political change.

Addressing the inaugural session of the third edition of Nepal Investment Summit that kicked off in Kathmandu on Friday, Oli said Nepal’s strategic location between the world’s two largest economies serves as incentive for investment for the country enjoys access to both markets on preferential terms. He added the size of Nepal’s domestic market is also expanding along with the growth of middle class population and people’s purchasing power.

“With India, we have duty free arrangements for most of our products, both primary and industrial goods, while China has granted a significant number of our tariff lines duty free access to its market,” said Oli.

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He further noted that beyond neighbourhood, export from Nepal is entitled to various kinds of duty free and preferential schemes put in operation by both developed and developing country\'s trade partners for the group of least developed countries.     

He said Nepal has ensured policy consistency and the long overdue legal, institutional and procedural reforms have been made under his leadership. He added Nepal government has drafted many new laws translating the provision of the new constitution into legal and institution frameworks thus creating conducive environment for foreign direct investment.  

Saying that his government has a clear vision and objective for the development of the country, Oli said the government’s has taken the private sector on board as an indispensable partner in its journey for economic transformation.

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He said the promulgation of the democratic, progressive constitution in 2015 and successfully holding the elections of all three tires of federal setup, has effectively ended the protracted political transition, and has fostered a sense of high optimism in Nepali people and the long cherished dream of socio-economic transformation can now become a reality.

He said Nepal need to attain a double-digit growth over the next years to achieve Sustainable Development Goals by 2030. "A tentative estimation by the National Planning Commission is that the country would require an investment of over 97.77 trillion Nepali rupees (about 88.18 billion USD) over the next five years. Domestic resources alone would not be sufficient to meet this requirement. This is where we would like to urge you to come and assist us in meeting huge investment needs,” he said.

He said Nepal’s economic policy and its orientation is explicitly spelled out in the Constitution which is premised on the realisation that growth and prosperity is possible only through partnership between and development of public, private and cooperative sectors.

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He said Nepal has made substantial progress in improving investment climate in the country by establishing a sound regulatory framework with the enactment of two key legislations—Foreign Investment and Technology Transfer Act; and Public-Private Partnership and Investment Act.

He said the Public Private Partnership and Investment Act provides one stop service for any foreign investment of Rupees 6.00 billion or a hydropower project over 200 MW capacity.

Elucidating on the government\'s plan to pursue bilateral investment protection agreement with friendly countries to further ensure protection for foreign investment, Oli said Nepal will also hold negotiations on avoidance of double taxation with interested countries to provide further incentives.  

Assuring the protection for foreign investments and guarantee of profit, Oli urged the participants to join hands in his government’s drive to make Nepal prosperous and the Nepali people happy.  

On the occasion, Finance Minister Yubaraj Khaitawada urged international investors to bring capital to Nepal as the government has made the environment friendly for investment by adopting scientific tax system and improving the law.

Informing the participants about Nepal’s economy, Minister Khatiwada said the government is striving for a rapid economic development.

Over 600 foreign investors from 40 countries have converged in Kathmandu to attend the two-day summit. The government has presented 77 different projects to attract investors. The projects require an investment of Rs 3000 billion.

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