PM Oli urges Indian business community for more investment in Nepal
Special correspondent Ramesh Lamsal
NEW DELHI, April 6: Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli, who is presently on the three-day State visit to India, has said the government will move ahead as per its goal of improving people’s living conditions.
In his address to a program organized by the India Nepal Business Forum on Friday, the Prime Minister said political transition had already come to an end in Nepal and economic prosperity remained as the government’s major agenda.
“Happy Nepali and prosperous Nepal are the Nepal’s main agenda of the hour,” he said, adding that he was making efforts to uplift the status of Nepal from the least developed country to a developing one. He was of the view that Nepal offered further opportunities for investment as it had the ‘strongest’ government with the 3/4th majority of the House of Representatives in its history. On the occasion, he called on the Indian business community to invest in Nepal with a wide heart.
According to him, the government has established a special economic zone to promote establishment of new industries, has brought a new industrial policy, there are no labor problems in the country and the government has adopted a zero-tolerance policy against corruption. He further made it clear that the government of Nepal had equally treated domestic and foreign investors.
He briefed the Indian and Nepali business community about development projects funded by Nepal and India and other under-construction projects in Nepal, urging them to utilise opportunities for investment in Nepal’s hydro power sector. “Nepal also offers opportunities for investment in agriculture, tourism and medicinal herb industries.”
Similarly, Investment Board Nepal’s chief executive officer Maha Prasad Adhikari stated that an investment-friendly atmosphere had been built in Nepal with the formation of a stable government.
He also informed that construction of big hydropower projects like the Upper Karnali and Arun III (900 megawatts each) was underway.
Saying there is an investment friendly environment in Nepal at present, he urged Indian industrialists and traders to invest in the country rest-assured. He referred to the period when they he said earned good incomes during even political transaction in Nepal.