IN FOCUS
BEYOND CLAMOUR OF NEPAL
INVESTMENT SUMMIT 2019
BY ATUL K THAKUR 1 & KAMAL DEV BHATTARAI 2 *
N
epal Communist Party (NCP) Chairman KP Sharma
Oli-led government which was formed in February
last year has been on a roller-coaster for diff erent
reasons, but it carefully managed to adjust to the ideological
preoccupations and chart a course towards market capitalism.
However, it couldn’t succeed the same way in attracting
foreign investment to fulfill the internal aspirations of
economic growth and prosperity.
As it is in public reckoning, the internal resources are
insuffi cient in Nepal, and the country needs substantial foreign
investment to meet its domestic needs. Therefore, instead of
exploring the dormant resources and channelizing them for
strengthening the national economy, the governments have
been making desperate attempts and without much care for
fi scal management.
At all the major regional and international platforms, it has
been a standard feature to see the prime minister, the foreign
minister, fi nance minister and other ministers urging to invest
in Nepal. Not surprising, the economic diplomacy has been
the centrepiece of its engagement with other countries.
The Nepal Investment Summit 2019 was organized on
March 29th-30th in Kathmandu in a bid to draw the attention
of international investors. This program was a well thought out
event planned and executed by the Investment Board Nepal
(IBN). About1400 participants including 700 foreign delegates
from various companies attended the occasion. The two-
day summit witnessed the highest participation from China
followed by India, two of Nepal’s immediate neighbours.
As revealed by a past trend, particularly that of the last
edition held in 2017, the commitments made by international
investors were not translated into reality. This time around
too, there was a considerable mismatch between the terms of
projections made by PM Oli and their actual materialization.
However, the Summit made a positive impact by creating
an interface between the policymakers of Nepal with
international business players.
During the Summit, some international investors had
shown their initial interest in the projects. Of late, the
70 • Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary Diplomatist • Vol 7 • Issue 4 • April-May 2019, Noida