Foreign Investment Commitments hit Rs 38.59bn in 5 months

KATHMANDU: Nepal attracted foreign investment commitments worth more than Rs 38.59 billion during the first five months of the current fiscal year, according to data released by the Department of Industry.

Between mid-July and mid-December, a total of 438 foreign investment–related projects were approved.

In terms of the number of projects, the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) sector emerged as the leading destination for foreign investors.

Out of the total approved projects, 236 were ICT-related, accounting for more than half of all foreign-invested projects.

Authorities expect the growing ICT sector to play an increasingly important role in strengthening the national economy in the coming years.

However, in terms of investment volume, the agriculture and forest-based industry sector received the highest commitments, attracting nearly Rs 22 billion in foreign investment.

The tourism sector also secured a significant share, with 135 projects proposing investments exceeding Rs 10 billion, the Department of Industry stated.

Sector-wise, foreign investment commitments during the five-month period were distributed as follows: ICT (54 percent), tourism (31 percent), services (6 percent), manufacturing (6 percent), and agriculture (3 percent).

Despite the large number of ICT projects, the total investment amount in the sector remained limited to around Rs 1 billion, indicating that most ICT projects are small in scale.

Based on project size, among the 438 approved industries, 423 were small-scale, eight were medium-sized, and only seven were large industries.

In mid-December alone, foreign investment commitments of approximately Rs 1.91 billion were approved across 56 industries, most of which were small enterprises.

During the same period, foreign investors also received approval to repatriate over Rs 1.62 billion as royalty payments, according to the department.