China contributes over 80% of FDI pledges to Nepal

KATHMANDU - China contributed to around 87 percent of foreign direct investment (FDI) commitments received by Nepal during the first 10 months of the current fiscal year that began in mid-July 2017, Nepal's Department of Industry (DoI) said.

According to DoI Statistics, Nepal received FDI pledge of 43.22 billion Nepali rupees ($396 million) from China against total FDI commitments of 49.87 billion Nepali rupees ($457 million) received by the Himalayan country by mid-May from the beginning of current fiscal year.

Chinese investment pledges stood at 86.66 percent of total FDI commitment received by Nepal over the period. India came second with FDI pledge of 4.04 billion Nepali rupees ($37.11 million). The United States came third followed by Japan and South Korea.

China had topped the chart in committing FDI in the last two consecutive fiscal years, 2016-17 and 2015-16, according to the DoI.

Information Officer at DoI Durga Prasad Bhusal told Xinhua on Tuesday that they were seeing surging flow of Chinese investors at the DoI for registration of industries in recent years.

"We feel it is just a part of growing Chinese investment across the world," he said.

According to him, Chinese investment in Nepal has grown in the areas of hydropower, agriculture and tourism.

During the first 10 months of this fiscal year, the highest Chinese FDI pledge came into areas of energy-based industries. Mineral, manufacturing and agro- and forest-based industries came second, third and fourth in terms of receiving FDI pledges from China, according to DoI.