Kathmandu: With the establishment of an industrial environment in the country in recent periods, the registration of industries has increased.

A statistics of the Department of Industry (DoI) shows that registration of industries has increased till the mid-January of current fiscal year as compared to corresponding period of previous fiscal year 2020/21.

According to the DoI, a total of 103 domestic and foreign industries were registered till mid-January of the previous fiscal year. The number of domestic and foreign industries in the corresponding period of the current fiscal year has reached 154.

A total of 8,608 domestic and foreign industries—1,259 large scale industries, 1,966 medium-scale industries and 5,383 small-scale industries - have been registered so far, according to the DoI.

With the increase in registration of industries, proposed investment has also gone up. A total of Rs 72.62 billion investment was proposed in the industries registered till the mid-January of previous fiscal year 2020/21. Now, the proposed investment has reached to Rs 186 billion in the current fiscal year.

According to the DoI, industries have been registered with Rs 2 trillion 470 billion investment.

The job opportunities offered by industries have almost doubled. During a review period of the last fiscal year, 6,288 jobs were created and 13,748 jobs have been proposed in the corresponding period of the current fiscal year. So far 642,453 jobs have been proposed in the registered industries, the Department said.

The number of people seeking permission for foreign investment from the Department has also increased.

There were 123 foreign investment approvals till mid-December last year and the number rose to 129 during the review period. The number of foreign investments approved by the Department so far stands at 5,366. There are 319 large-scale industries, 566 medium-scale industries and 4,481 small-scale industries set up on foreign investment. During the review period, foreign investment went up from Rs 23.47 billion to Rs 30.56 billion.

So far, 5,366 industries with foreign investment proposals of Rs 395.42 billion have been registered, according to the Department.

Director General of the DoI Ram Chandra Tiwari said gradual improvement in the industrial atmosphere, policy-level and administrative reforms, increased facilities and facilitation to investors and improvement of investment barriers are among the causes leading to the rising number of new industries in the country.