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Nepal declares tax holiday to boost investments

Nepal is totally committed to attracting foreign investment to supplement the process of economic development and has already announced a tax holiday to boos the process, stated Nepalese Foreign Minister Kamal Thapa.

He was addressing the inaugural session of the two-day US Investment Summit, organised by the US-India Business Council, in Calcutta. Thapa claimed that his country was perhaps the first in the region to open up its economy slowly in the 1980s. He pointed out that the Nepalese rupee had been made fully convertible.

Thapa welcomed the private sector, including foreign companies, and said they were free to invest and repatriate profits without any difficulties.

Thapa asserted that all the political parties were agreeable to the new economic policy and the country' enjoyed a broad consensus in this regard.

The foreign minister told the US business delegates that his country would welcome any fresh investment and there were several areas which could be tapped by making a substantial investment. Thapa pointed out that many core sectors, including those of power, particularly hydel, could be harnessed by making adequate investment for rapid development.

Emphasising that the Southeast Asian region was coming of age, he felt that more investment in the region would help unfold new areas of prosperity. He said the entire region was now poised for take-off, with a huge potential to grow and with the availability of a large number of skilled and semiskilled work force.

Thapa concluded by saying that a survey had shown Nepal as having a hydropower generation potential of 33,000 megawatts. This, he added, was important not only for growth without pollution, but also for the economic development of the region.

UNI