Kathmandu, January 11:

The investors from the land of Mao, Nepal’s ruling Maoist party’s ideal, today urged the government to give them a level playing field. They also complained to one of the chief Maoist ideologues of various hurdles like customs duty, regular strikes, soaring transportation fares, visa renewal problems and unequal treatment in doing business in Nepal.

“Chinese goods are taxed more than Indian ones,” they complained at a round-table meeting to attract more investment from China organised by the Federation of Nepalese Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FNCCI) here today.

Nepal’s trade with its northern neighbour China is less in comparison to its Southern neighbour India. “Nepal is southward tilted, and that needs to be balanced,” Finance Minister Dr Baburam Bhattarai said adding that a country needed to be economically independent in order to be politically sovereign.

“Nepal needs to take advantage of highly growing economies like India and China, and act as a vibrant bridge between them and not just as a historically defined buffer zone,” he added.

Chinese investment started pouring into Nepal after Nepal-China Non-governmental Cooperation Forum’s establishment in 1996. According to data, Nepal has Rs 3.74 billion Chinese investment. But in recent years, it is on a declining trend due to an investment-unfriendly climate.

Dr Bhattarai assured them of creating an investment-friendly climate. “We are working to bring in an Act to ban strikes in industries soon,” he promised, adding that the present hurdles were just like those faced by China in the 1940s.

According to the Department of Industry till April 12, there were 165 industries with Chinese investment and providing employment to 11,000 people especially in service sector (hotels and restaurants), construction, hydropower, food processing, readymade garments and pashmina, hospital and health services and herbal industries.

The share of Chinese investment in Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) is 12.54 per cent.

Qiu Guohong, Chinese ambassador to Nepal, speaking on the occasion, said that China attaches great importance to its relationship with Nepal. “China supports the government’s development priorities but also wants to see a conducive environment for investment,” the envoy said adding that only economic development would help fulfil public aspirations.

Nepal exported Rs 736.45 million worth goods to China (including Tibetan Autonomous Region

of China and Lhasa) during 2007-08 and imported goods worth Rs 22.25 billion that shows the increasing trade deficit between them.

“To bridge the trade gap between two centuries-old neighbours, Nepal should lure investment

in areas like construction, mining and connectivity,” suggested Suraj Vaidya, senior vice-president of FNCCI.

FNCCI president Kush Kumar Joshi said that government policy was favourable for FDI but the investment atmosphere was not favourable.