KATHMANDU: Nepal Investment Summit would help to boost industrial prosperity in the country, industrialist and business persons have hoped.

The summit is being organized after establishment of a stable government and the new constitution.

The Investment Summit can be a medium to attract foreign investment for the prosperity of country’s industries; they viewed, arguing that the event could be a golden opportunity for Nepal to draw foreign investor’s attention. Also, it would be a fruitful platform to exchange knowledge, skills and experiences in industrial sector for future development.

To this regard, Chairperson of Federation of Nepalese Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FNCCI), Bhawani Rana, observed that the initiative to hold the mega event by the government is positive to create the investment climate.

The efforts for policy and procedural reform would be meaningful for job creations.

“Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli has urged both national and international communities for the investment in Nepal to boost economic status. Private sector is encouraged with PM’s call on foreign investors during his visit to Davos and the US,” she reminded.

The Coca-Cola Company has launched the 5by20 program to empower 5 million women entrepreneurs in 200 countries by 2020. The company has initiated 5by20 program in 2010 to enable the economic empowerment of the targeted number in the esteemed time.

“In collaboration with our partners, we aim to help women entrepreneurs overcome the barriers they face to business success”, Coca-Cola said.

The company is helping women who produce ingredients, supply goods, distribute beverages, own shops, recycle packaging and create products from packaging. “Women are a powerful global economic force, but they are consistently undervalued.

We wanted to do something to change that, so we made a global commitment to enable the economic empowerment of five million female entrepreneurs by 2020”, the company informed.

The company is helping women overcome the barriers they face when trying to succeed in the marketplace offering training, financial services and connections with peers and mentors.

The program is currently working in more than 40 countries including Brazil, South Africa, Philippines, India, China, Mexico, Nigeria, Kenya, Uganda, Haiti and Egypt.

The empowered women aspire to own their own businesses, provide a good education for their children, and create the best life possible for their families. The company aims to provide the tools and skills needed to act on those dreams.

MOSCOW: Ford is closing three factories in Russia citing low customer demand. Ford says that it will close vehicle assembly plants in St. Petersburg and Naberezhnye Chelny, as well as an engine plant in Yelabug, claiming it will stop making passenger cars in Russia by the end of June.

The U.S. carmaker blames a slow recovery in the Russian car market after an economic slowdown in recent years, and moves toward cheaper cars.Ford will now focus solely on commercial Transit vans in Russia through its Ford Sollers joint venture.

(Agencies)

KATHMANDU: A total of 81,077 applicants have so far applied for the Korean Langue Test (KLT) under the Employment Permit System. Out of the total number, 55,997 have applied in productive sector while 25,080 applied for the agriculture and livestock sectors.

According to the Department of Foreign Employment, EPS section, the candidates will have to fill out forms online from March 22 to 31.

Human Resource Department under the Korean government has announced vacancies for 10,050 Nepali workers – 7,050 for productive sector while over 3,000 for agriculture and livestock sectors – at the request of the department for the year 2019. KLT will be held on June 8-9.

KATHMANDU: Inoperable of the data hub of the Nepal Stock Exchange (NEPSE) has adversely affected the share transaction today. The server of the NEPSE, located at Thapathali run-down from the 1:42 pm, left the market dry.

Murahari Parajuli, Spokeperson of NEPSE, said that the dysfunctional server creel the market.  Narendra Sijapati, Chairman of Kalika Securities informed that the technical problems left no transaction today.

However, the server is now in functional and the transaction time has extended till 6 pm. On normal days, market closes at 3 pm.

LONDON: New cars, vans, lorries and buses that are being sold in Europe must have the technology that prompts  speed limit from 2022.  Intelligent speed assistance (ISA) uses a speed sign recognition camera and GPS-linked speed limit data to automatically limit the speed of the vehicle.

The system limits engine power, although drivers can override it by pushing hard on the accelerator, an action that will prompt an alert from the system.

The measures were first announced by the European Commission last year but after talks in Strasbourg on Monday night, they look set to be given the go-ahead by EU member states in September.

New cars in Britain will also have the safety features from 2022. Safety features include automated emergency braking which can detect pedestrians and cyclists, technology that senses when drivers are falling asleep or losing concentration, a system that keeps vehicles in the center of the lane and a vehicle data recorder enabling deeper understanding of the causes of a collision.

KATHMANDU: With the much-talked Nepal Investment Summit inching closer, Minister Dr. Yuba Raj Khatiwada has expressed his hope that the summit would prove a golden opportunity towards the goal of economic development.

Nepal is hosting the Nepal Investment Summit, 2019 on March 29-30.

‘The Summit is a common mission of Nepalis and combined efforts are necessary to make it a success, utilizing the right opportunity to bring foreign investment home,’ the Minister said.

KATHMANDU: Showcasing a total of 77 different projects worth $31.93 billion in various sectors, the government is all set to host the Nepal Investment Summit on March 29 and 30 in Kathmandu.

Themed ‘A Promising Investment Destination’, the two-day summit, aimed at demonstrating the country’s improved business atmosphere to potential foreign investors, will showcase 50 government-owned projects and 27 other projects from the private sector, according to the Investment Board Nepal (IBN).

The IBN said around 600 investors from 40 countries will participate in the summit. The summit is also aimed at attracting and convincing the foreign investors to invest in Nepal at a time when it has a stable government.

The summit will also include deliberations on investment opportunities in the above-mentioned sectors besides focusing on opinions from experts and investors to bring in investment here in areas of physical infrastructure, energy, information technology, agriculture, industry, health and education, and tourism.

The country’s Federal Parliament has already endorsed the Public-Private Partnership and Investment Bill with an aim to creating an easy and smooth environment to foreign investors.

A total of 25 energy and infrastructure-related projects, 17 projects related to tourism and 11 related to the transportation sector will also be presented during the summit to realize the government’s goal of “Prosperous Nepal, Happy Nepali”.

Similarly, the summit will be showcasing a total of eight agricultural projects, seven projects related to urban development, and six industrial sector-related projects. Likewise, the government will also put forth three projects relating to education and the health sector.

The IBN said the main objective in the summit will be to demonstrate the improved business climate of the country in recent years to potential investors. “The summit will focus on transforming the political and policy stability into trust among the domestic and international business society.”

The summit will also include deliberations on investment opportunities in the above-mentioned sectors besides focusing on opinions from experts and investors to bring in investment here in areas of physical infrastructure, energy, information technology, agriculture, industry, health and education, and tourism.

The summit to be inaugurated by Prime Minister KP Oli on Friday will see ministers of different ministries briefing about the country’s current favorable investment climate.

Maha Prasad Adhikari, CEO at the IBN informed that rather than sharing information on theoretical aspects, they would provide a complete package about projects to the potential investors.

The IBN, which coordinates the summit, has listed and finalized several projects worth Rs 3.1 trillion such as West Seti, AR-6; Sunkoshi II and III, Lower Arun, Nalgadh Hydropower Project, Tamor Water Reservoir Project, and SR-6 for joint-venture.

Likewise, projects such as Kathmandu-Pokhara Railway, East-West Electric Rail, Kathmandu Metro Rail, and Gautam Buddha International Maternity Hospital, would also be showcased in the summit.

To be inaugurated by Prime Minister KP Oli on Friday, the summit will see ministers of different ministries apprising participants of the country’s current favorable investment climate.

It should be noted that the first summit held in 2017 bringing around 250 international investors, succeeded in securing Letters of Intent (LoIs) worth Rs. 13.74 billion from foreign investors.

KATHMANDU: Three vice presidents from the World Bank (WB) group said they will be participating in Nepal Investment Summit to be held on March 29-30.

Hartwig Schafer, Vice President for World Bank for the South Asia Region; Keiko Honda, the CEO of Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (MIGA); and Hans Peter Lankes, the Vice President of the International Finance Corporation (IFC), are visiting Nepal.

Schafer said that he will be discussing about investment options during the Summit. He is hopeful that the Summit will attract private investment and attract more investment in Nepal, which help to create jobs, to be the engine of growth, help Nepal prosper.

Likewise, Honda said that the Summit will be a significant milestone to achieve government’s vision. She labeled Nepal as a ‘rising star’ of South Asia, with Foreign Direct Investment flows reaching a record high. “This confirms Nepal’s efforts to improve its investment climate,” Honda said on a social platform.

Similarly, Lankes said they were working closely with the Government of Nepal to identify key sectors with strong potential for economic growth. “Some of our recent recommendations focus on important cross-cutting policy reforms, including land, regulatory, and access to finance areas as well as investment in public goods that could stimulate development,” said Lankes.

Investment Summit is a popular way to reach out tremendous Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) resources of the world. In the summit, international and national potential investors are gathered. The government presents its promising priority projects based on themes to interact and to generate curiosity, interest, and promise of the investors for the proposed projects.

It depends on how much the government is smart to win the investor’s confidence through investment-friendly fiscal and monetary schemes and security. In 2017, the government of Nepal initiated the investment summit after a gap of 20 years. The Investment Summit 2019 has an objective to make Nepal a promising investment destination with the expectation of 30 billion USD funneled in five key sectors: agriculture, energy, infrastructure, tourism, construction, and aviation.

There are queries on the preparation of Nepal Investment Summit 2019 and on the success of the summit itself. However, the government insists FDI is a cure to problems like the declining share of agriculture and industry to the GDP, poor infrastructure, sluggish export trade, and unexploited natural resources.

Approximately 50 projects are to be showcased including that of private sectors. Like as the Investment Summit 2017, the government expects the participation of more than 50 companies. For this, the government has amended laws on a fast track without much deliberation in the parliament, tried to repair physical infrastructures, and has initiated security assurance by imposing a ban on the activities of the ‘Biplav’-led Maoist outfit. There are queries on the preparation of Nepal Investment Summit 2019 and on the success of the summit itself.

Macro-Economic Indicators

The government of Nepal has a catchy slogan of ‘Happy Nepali, Prosperity Nepal’ in its budget in the current fiscal year. However, macro indicators including non-spending capital budget and rocketing imports led to a wide negative balance of payment, high unemployment rate and decreasing foreign currency reserve.

The growing general acceptance of corruption at the government level pushed the country into the 3rd rank on the corruption perspective index. Therefore, the perspective of FDI inflow is not positive. It is further complicated by the falling HDI and tax barriers reflected in the doing business index.

However, the government insists FDI is a cure to problems like the declining share of agriculture and industry to the GDP, poor infrastructure, sluggish export trade, and unexploited natural resources. The government says FDI, by solving these problems, shall ensure higher employment and economic growth. As such, this summit appears ambitious.

Laws Amendment Preparation

The government recently amended four acts out of which the Foreign Direct Investment and Technological Transfer Act 2019, is the most important one. The act is very important to create an investment-friendly environment and in boosting investor’s confidence. It was not enacted through parliamentary discussion. Thus, there is a higher possibility of flaws, errors, and mistakes in it. Its effectiveness, relevancy, and efficiency can surface as a big issue and could prove costly to the investors.

National Consensus

Whatever be its motive, the government ignored the need for national consensus in holding the summit by not the opposition on board. Nobody knows about the next government and its policy. Therefore, there is a big possibility of risk and cost of inconsistency and repatriation provisions to the investors in the long run. Therefore, the investor’s confidence in risk and marginal cost per unit production and service is challenged. Similarly, the conversion rate from the commitment to FDI to the reality may be lower than our expectation.

Investment Climate

At the given state of things, the government needs to amend more than 20 laws and regulations as part of creating an investment-friendly environment to woo investors. In fact, two laws and regulations related to FDI and technological transfer are in place. Creating investment climate is difficult in lack of other laws.

Maybe our preparation was insufficient or maybe the investors had no sufficient reasons to invest in Nepal or maybe the post follow up seriously lacked.

Insecurity Issue

The government ban on the ‘Biplav’-led Maoist faction has once again created a sense of insecurity among the industrial communities. There is a fear that the Biplav faction may once more invite insurgency similar to the decade-long Maoist war between the government and the security forces. This is driven by the bombing activities of the Biplav group targeting Ncell.

A lesson from the 2017 Summit

In this context, the last summit in 2017 may be an open book to learn lessons for this summit.

In 2017, the Investment Summit’s priority sectors were agriculture, energy, ICT, tourism, education, health, mine and minerals, and transportation. About 26 companies, out of 48 companies committed to investing 13.74 billion USD in 10 sectors. China (8450 mil USD) was first followed by Bangladesh (2400 mil USD), United Kingdom (1000 mil USD), Japan (1000 mil USD), Sri Lanka (500 mil USD) and India (360 mil USD).  There were six sectors: (1) Infrastructure (13), Energy (13), Manufacturing (6), Agriculture (5), Health (5) and Banking and Financial (2). Around 250 foreign investors had participated in the summit.

The summit appeared as a successful national event since the investors had committed 13.74 billion USD, which, however, did not materialize. The achievement remained as a mere media hype.

Maybe our preparation was insufficient or maybe the investors had no sufficient reasons to invest in Nepal or maybe the post follow up seriously lacked.

Options on the eve of the summit

Let us hope this summit, despite whatever the government’s preparation and initiation, will be successful with a higher rate of FDI commitment transpiring into reality. For this to happen, the government should immediately to work in fixing the regulatory measures and in creating an investment-friendly environment so that the investors can execute their plan into reality in the Nepalese soil.

The government should seriously work on one window policy, zero corruption, enforcement of law and order, and in guaranteeing the repatriation, among others.

But before that what matters most is how the government presents itself and performs in the summit. Managing logistics, hospitality and information dissemination during the summit are also of crucial concern.