Kathmandu, November 14: President of the Federation of Nepalese Chambers of Commerce and Industries, Chandra Prasad Dhakal, has expressed his commitment to continue supporting Nepali missions in various countries for investment, tourism and export promotion. In an interaction organized by the Federation with the newly appointed Nepali ambassadors and three consuls general to 17 different countries, the Federation said it is trying to work as a bridge between investors and the government to promote investment by establishing a foreign investment support cell.
"We are here to urge you to expand economic diplomacy by making full use of our mechanisms," Dhakal said, "Our diplomats should take the lead role in this."
He urged the newly appointed ambassadors to work on economic diplomacy as a standard of performance as the environment in Nepal has not been conducive to investment.
President Dhakal also said that the international network of the Federation could also be used by the agencies. The Federation has collaborations with around 50 private sector representative bodies and chambers around the world. Dhakal also mentioned that the Federation would also provide foreign membership and opined that foreign companies and institutions could be encouraged to become members of the Federation.
Referring to the economic challenges faced by Nepal, Chairman Dhakal said that various policy measures taken to control demand have had a negative impact. "There was a need to manage and move ahead with significant economic growth in the post-COVID era. However, we adopted a policy of controlling the economy, which led to the exodus of a large number of manpower, as well as a decline in investment and employment,” said Dhakal.


According to Dhakal, in the last two years, foreign investment has been limited to an annual amount of 7 to 9 billion rupees, which is only about 0.2% of the country's gross domestic product. Therefore, he believed that investment promotion should be the subject of everyone's interest.
During the discussion, he presented the positive side of the economy and said that investors can be attracted. "Foreign investors can take advantage of the high foreign exchange reserves," he said.
President Dhakal also drew attention to the possibility of organizing various investment promotion programs together with the Nepali Commission and the Federation.
"In the last one-and-a-half years, we have held major conferences in India, China, and Dubai," he said. Around 150 local entrepreneurs from all over the country participated in the event.
Mentioning the potential of Nepali agricultural products in the Middle East countries, President Dhakal stressed the need to pay special attention to it. In other countries, non-tariff barriers for Nepali products have also been identified as a problem.
In this way, as Nepal is on the verge of being upgraded from the least developed countries, it will affect the private sector by cutting the facilities available internationally. President Dhakal reminded that the newly appointed ambassadors will have an important role to play in reducing such impact.
During the discussion, the newly appointed ambassadors expressed the need to work to have less impact from the upgrade. In this way, they said, cooperation would be made to attract foreign investment so that the private sector could gain confidence. Nepal's Ambassador to the UK, Chandra Ghimire, called for initiatives for a bilateral tax-exemption agreement.
Krishna Prasad Oli, Nepal's Ambassador-designate to China, also called for exploring the possibility of exporting water from the Nepali Himalayan region. Ambassador to South Africa Kapil Shrestha, Ambassador to Pakistan Rita Dhital, Ambassador to Saudi Arabia Naresh Dhakal, Ambassador to Spain Sanil Nepal, Ambassador to Portugal Prakashmani Poudel and Ambassador to Malaysia Netra Prasad Timalsena expressed the commitment to work with the private sector.
Dr. Shankar Sharma, the proposed ambassador to India, offered to participate in the program to be held in India. What are the problems with India, he asked to give them in writing.
The proposed ambassador to Qatar pointed out that the Federation has established a joint council with the Qatar Chamber to benefit from it.
Nepal's Ambassador to Germany Dr Sahyog Rupakheti said the Federation should take the initiative to take the GSP Plus facility to the countries going to the European countries.
Laxman Khanal and Gyan Bahadur Magar, joint secretaries of the Foreign Ministry, said that economic diplomacy is a priority of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and special initiatives will be taken in this regard.
Senior Vice President of the Federation Anjan Shrestha said that the newly appointed ambassadors should keep economic diplomacy at the center. Office bearers of the Federation were also present in the program.