September 12: Finance Minister Yuba Raj Khatiwada said that Nepal has developed conducive environment for doing business and investment, according to a statement issued by the Confederation of Nepalese Industries (CNI). Citing that all foreign firms in the country have been making up to 25 per cent return against the global average of 10 per cent, Khatiwada reportedly said that Nepal is a better option for investors in terms of rate of return.

Speaking at a session of the Nepal Infrastructure Summit 2019 on Wednesday, Khatiwada said that the government is in the process of conducting sovereign credit rating to facilitate possible businesses in the country.

However, the statement said Khatiwada acknowledged that the government has not been able to give due priority to the infrastructure sector in the lack of enough resources as the present government also has bigger responsibility of social security of citizens.

"The Constitution has guaranteed more than 30 fundamental rights to the people and majority of them are related to social security. Along with this, the government also has to ensure availability of resources (administrative) to all the local governments across the country," the statement quoted Khatiwada as saying.

In such context, Khatiwada said that the government is promoting support and investment from the private sector for desired economic goals and development aspirations of the country.

According to him, ample investment in the infrastructure, including roadways, railways, airways and the tourism infrastructures will ensure easy entry of the private sector in the development process. Along with this, the government is seeking private sector support also to diversify and divide risks. However, Khatiwada said that some infrastructure projects can also be operated in business model in a bid to attract private sector investment in those projects.

Radesh Panta, former chief executive officer of the Investment Board Nepal (IBN) said that the country today needs quality investment for which the government should ensure necessary subsidy packages and coordination with investors.

World Bank vice president Jingdong Huo said that the World Bank has been contributing to the private sector-oriented economic development in Nepal. As per him, the World Bank has been operating 25 projects in Nepal at present while $2.6 billion worth new projects have been initiated in Nepal lately. Moreover, Huo said that majority of economic indicators of Nepal today are satisfactory, the statement added.