Kathmandu, November 11

The government is preparing to hold the International Investors' Summit in the Capital on March 2 and 3 next year to promote investment in Nepal.

As mentioned in the budget speech for fiscal year 2016-17, the Ministry of Industry (MoI), in coordination with Investment Board Nepal (IBN), will organise the international summit next year to update international investors on the current investment environment of Nepal.

“We are working together with IBN to make the summit as successful as possible. We have set a target to attract at least 300 international investors at the summit,” Industry Minister Nabindra Raj Joshi informed The Himalayan Times, adding that the summit will play a crucial role to draw huge foreign direct investment (FDI) in Nepal in the future.

According to Joshi, the summit will give investors information about different sectors that have investment potential in Nepal, and policy provisions for investors along with a complete scenario highlighting pros of investing in Nepal.

MoI has formed two separate committees to successfully host summit — a steering committee led by Industry Minister Joshi and a technical committee led by a joint secretary at MoI.

Both of these committees are actively working to finalise the modality of the summit and other different pre-summit procedures, according to MoI Joint Secretary Yam Kumari Khatiwada. “We want to disseminate a message to the international committee and investors that Nepal is a safe place to invest,” Khatiwada said, adding that the seminar also aims to inform foreign investors about lucrative provisions that existing laws in Nepal have offered.

As per Khatiwada, MoI will request different multinational companies and global business conglomerates for their participation in the summit.

MoI is seeking necessary budget from Ministry of Finance (MoF) and IBN for the international seminar.

The government believes that the International Investors’ Summit this time will be more fruitful in the sense that the government has guaranteed different tax facilities and easy repatriation facility to any foreign company working in Nepal through the recently endorsed Industrial Enterprises Act and Special Economic Zone (SEZ) Act.

Khatiwada said that MoI is also working on the final draft of the Foreign Investment Act, which is key to attract FDI.

Meanwhile, the private sector believes that though such events effectively brand Nepal and its investment potential sectors, actual investment from multinational companies and other big business houses will be a mere dream unless country has effective repatriation law followed by an assurance through the policies and laws that foreign investment is safe in Nepal.

“Government had organised a few such summits earlier, but failed to generate desired outcome,” said a senior official at Federation of Nepalese Chambers of Commerce and Industry, adding government should try to win trust of foreign investors through policies and their implementation.