November 10: The registration of projects under foreign investment continued even during the lockdown period.

A total of 52 projects with investment from five different nations were registered at the Department of Industry through the local agents between March 24 to July 20, when the government had imposed a nation-wide lockdown.

However, the number of projects registered during the review period was comparatively less than that registered in the corresponding period of last fiscal year.

According to the department, investors from China, India, Singapore, Malaysia, and the Netherlands had registered the projects worth Rs 8.37 billion during the lockdown period.

Information Officer of the department Binod Khadgi informed New Business Age that the department was open and the employees worked in different shifts during the lockdown period. According to him, the foreign investors did not visit Nepal in person but registered the projects through their local agents.

“Foreign companies can appoint attorney-in-fact or hand over the power of attorney to the local agents to register projects in Nepal,” said Khadgi.

During the review period, a considerable number of projects with Chinese investment were registered in Nepal.

Among the 52 projects registered during lockdown, 45 were backed by Chinese investors. Most of the projects in  which the Chinese investors were interested in were related to the service sector and tourism industry followed by information technology and production sector.

The projects with Chinese investors alone are worth Rs 7.53 billion.

Indian investors ranked second among foreign investors registering their projects in Nepal during lockdown. They were also interested in the service sector and tourism. The Indian projects are worth Rs 707.5 million.

Investors from Malaysia and Singapore have registered one project each in tourism and service sectors while the Netherlands has registered two projects.

During the corresponding period of last fiscal year, a total of 138 projects with investment from 18 different countries were registered in Nepal.

The investors were from China, India, Malaysia, Singapore, the Netherlands, Bangladesh, Australia, Myanmar, Germany, Japan, South Korea, Turkey, the UK, the USA, South Africa among others. The investment commitment for the projects was worth Rs 19.36 billion back then.