Nepal's tryst with FDI

(This book has become the first Nepali book to be nominated for an International award. It was nominated in ‘Colleagues Choice Award 2007’ of International Convention of Asia Scholars (ICAS). It was the only Nepali Book out of more than 25 book nominees.)
--------------------------

Nepal formally welcomed Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in the later half of '80s. However, history has it that the first foreign investment began with the establishment of Biratnagar Jute Mill in 1936.
Post-1990, market liberalisation has played a vital role in attracting foreign investment. But the trend, unfortunately could not continue, as the post-1990 governments did not realise that the free market economy could not survive only on political foundation. Without social foundation, it became meaningless.
'Foreign Direct Investment in Nepal' is a book by Raghu Bir Bista, who has been researching on foreign direct investment, globalisation, and poverty in Nepal for a long time now.
The book is an outcome of several years research work on FDI, according to the author. And the book is related to socio-economic impacts of FDI in macro-and micro-level. It also analyses trends, size, growth and structure of FDI and investment climate in Nepal.
Foreign Direct Investment refers to a cross-country investment as a component of globalisation and a supplementary potential alternative resource substituting foreign debt. It helps in transferring capital, management and new technologies form a developed country to a lesser developed one.
This book deals with the impacts of FDI at macro and micro levels with analysis of its trend, structure and policy environment. This book is comprised of three parts such as preliminary, main body and annexes.
The book begins with an introduction on FDI, the concept of FDI with its historical background, rationale, features, form and reality. It also tries to give an overview on the progress and scope of foreign direct investment in Nepal so far, investment climate, priority, opportunity and condition, and the policy environment.
According to a survey by the global consulting firm AT Kearney, India has emerged as the second best destination for foreign direct investment (FDI) after China. FDI contributes a lot to the economic and overall development of these countries.
Nepal could take lessons from its neighbours and try to attract more FDI. But to lure more FDI, Nepal must address issues related to its infrastructure, logistics and regulatory barriers.
The author needs more research on international and South Asian trends of FDI and its structure. He has not mentioned how FDI in small and land-locked economies like ours have fared so far and how it opens possibilities of hurting local business severely.

-----------------------------------
BOOK REVIEW
Book: Foreign Direct Investment in Nepal
Author: Raghu Bir Bista
Published by: Center for Integrated Development Studies Nepal (CIDS)
Price: Rs 350