Investment Board discusses regulations

The meeting of Investment Board today discussed on making the foreign investment regulations investor friendly.
"We discussed on regulations that needs to help function the board according to the Investment Board Act," a member of the Investment Board said, adding that the meeting chaired by Prime Minister Dr Baburam Bhattarai has, however, not been able to finalise the regulations today and is meeting within a week again.
Earlier, the Board has formed a committee under National Planning Commission vice chairman Deependra Bahadur Chhetri to work out regulations to support Investment Board Act in attracting investments.
The Board has also been working on harmonisation of various investments related regulations to attract projects worth around Rs 500 billion.Similarly, the Board invited today an expert from IFC to brief on hydropower development. "The expert briefed on various aspects of hydropower development and its challenges," the member said, adding that the meeting shared a lots of experiences on hydropower development.Apart from the regulations, the Board is also working on incentive packages to offer the investors to encourage them to come to Nepal. The country needs above Rs 600 billion to achieve double digit growth and "the Board has been working on to attract at least 50 big projects worth Rs 10 billion to give a boost to the economic growth with employment creation," said chief executive of the Board Radhesh Pant.
The country has been witnessing around three to four per cent growth in recent years due to low investment forced by political instability and unpredictable situation. The investors, either foreign or domestic, want the predictable environment for investment planning but this time around the country that is passing through the transition has been trying to lure them with policy harmonisation and incentive packages.