Kathmandu, November 19:

With a view of familiarising investment opportunities in hydro power sector, Independent Power Producers’ Association Nepal (IPPAN) organised a workshop ‘Hydro power Investment: Bankers’ Perspective’, in the capital today.

The workshop — attended by senior level executives of Nepali commercial banks and financing institutions — was organised to familiarise them with fundamentals of hydro power, make them aware of inherent risks in developing power projects and to discuss limitations of local financing.

On the occasion, Dr Sandip Shah, president of IPPAN highlighted IPPAN’s efforts to create a conducive environment for hydro power development in the country. He shed light on IPPAN’s activities and priorities and welcomed the banking community to take advantages of IPPAN’s facilities and publications.

Krishna Bahadur Manandhar, deputy governor at Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB) acknowledged that lack of sector-specific knowledge is a major reason due to which the local banking sector has not been involved in long-term project financing including hydro power development.

“There is a lack of communication between the project developers and investors,” he said, adding that the Nepali financial sector has now grown up from strength to strength. He expressed that the programme would definitely help to build up a confidence level of the bankers and the financers.

Manandhar informed that the central bank is promoting a new financing concept for the long-term project through ‘Infrastructure Development Bank (IDB)’, and requested the bankers to adopt the concept to promote the sector.

The workshop covered the different relevant issues in hydro power development as legal and regulatory framework, inherent risk issues, local financing issues, hydro power basics and potential and necessity of power development in the country.