Money
Dahal urges investment in Nepal’s energy sector
Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal on Monday urged potential investors across the world to put money in Nepal’s energy sector.Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal on Monday urged potential investors across the world to put money in Nepal’s energy sector.
Delivering a keynote address at the opening ceremony of the World Future Energy Summit in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Dahal said Nepal had adopted a favorable policy environment for investors, and that the growing demand for energy
in Nepal and South Asia could provide optimum benefits to investors.
“We have provided several incentives to promote investment in the energy sector, such as tax rebates, concessional duty, excise duty and refunds and up to 100 percent repatriation of profits,” the prime minister said according to the text made available by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
“Our labour policy is market friendly, and we have an abundance of cheap labour. Nepal welcomes investment from firms across the world in its energy sector.”
Apart from such policies, the government, according to Dahal, is ready to sign separate Programme Development Agreements with investors to boost their confidence to implement projects in Nepal.
He told the summit that Nepal had signed a Power Trade Agreement (PTA) with India opening access to a large export market for electricity in the neighbouring country.
Similarly, South Asian countries signed the Saarc Framework Agreement on Energy Cooperation during the 18th Saarc Summit in Kathmandu which is an important step towards the eventual formation of a regional energy market.
Prime Minister Dahal told participants that Nepal was targeting to graduate from its least developed country (LDC) status to a developing country by 2022, and aimed to become a middle income country by 2030.
To meet these targets, Nepal will need at least 6,000 MW of additional energy. In order to realise this development target by achieving an economic growth rate of a decent 7.2 percent, a total capacity of 25,000 MW is needed to be installed by 2040.
“As we are at a nascent stage of development, investment in the energy sector is full of potential,” Dahal said.