Preparations for the investment summit are likely to face slackness with the change in government

While uncertainty mounts on the success of the announced Nepal Investment Summit-2024 with the fresh political development, the Investment Board Nepal (IBN) is prepared to finalize investments worth Rs 301.18 billion in four big projects during the summit.

The government has announced plans to organize the third edition of the investment summit scheduled for April 28-29 in Kathmandu. The summit has aimed to welcome a large amount of foreign direct investment (FDI) in a number of infrastructure projects.

Citing the readiness at the top bureaucratic level and provision of necessary laws, the ambitious program forwarded by the government has invited criticism from its announcement date in November, 2023. Due to similar reasons, the previous two investment summits had failed to attract the FDI as expected.

The outgoing Finance Minister Prakash Sharan Mahat led committee has been working on the necessary preparations for the investment summit. The government in this regard had pledged to revise over a dozen laws to facilitate an enabling environment for potential investment ahead of the upcoming summit. The formation of a new coalition government that will need to take the vote of confidence in the next one month, has again put into question the effectiveness of the summit, which is just one and a half months away.

Pradyumna Prasad Upadhyay, spokesperson for the IBN and a member of the technical committee, said the change in government will not affect the conduction of the investment summit. According to him, a total of 125 projects have been shortlisted by the consultants and various government agencies as of now. “The necessary preparations have already been started to study the stages and viabilities of these projects,” he said.

According to the IBN, the government has almost finalized to sign agreements for four projects during the summit. They include Nepal-China Friendly Industrial Park in Jhapa, Upper Marsyangdi-2 Hydropower Project, grid-connected solar project in Banke and Kapilvastu districts and expansion of production capacity of Dabur Nepal.

Upadhyay said during the investment summit, a project development agreement will be signed to build Nepal-China Friendly Industrial Park. The estimated cost of the project is $786 million (more than Rs 104 billion).

Likewise, the government is inviting Chinese investment worth $647 million (Rs 85.86 billion) for the 327 MW Upper Marsyangdi-2 Hydropower Project. A separate agreement will be signed for investment worth $185.5 million (Rs 21.03 billion) for two 125 MW grid-connected solar projects. Similarly, Dabur Nepal is expected to go into agreement with the government to inject Rs 9.68 billion for the expansion of its production capacity.