NEW DELHI, Mar 3: In a mission to strengthen its economic and trade ties with Nepal, India today suggested its neighbour to expand its export basket by attracting more investment from here in export-oriented industries.
Currently, the trade deficit between India and Nepal stands at Rs 277.13 billion in the first five months of the current fiscal as against Rs 140.03 billion in the same period a year ago, the latest macroeconomic report of the Nepal Rastra Bank showed.
While addressing the Nepal Investment Summit 2017, Minister of Finance Arun Jaitley said, “India and Nepal have wide ranging engagement in trade and investment and that Nepal is well poised to attract further FDI from India by creation of a conducive legal and regulatory framework.
India is Nepal’s largest partner in trade and investment with more than 2/3rd of Nepal’s trade being with India and India accounting for nearly 40 per cent of total FDI in Nepal.”
Nepal has several important sectors such as hydropower, transmission lines, road and rail networks, health, education, tourism, irrigation in which it can attract Indian investments. India is ready to invest in the projects of Kathmandu-Nijgadh fast track road, second international airport at Nijgadh, Koshi High Dam, he added.
During his meetings, he met several top leaders from Nepal and conveyed India’s abiding commitment to partner with the country in meeting its aspirations for socio-economic growth. He also urged the Nepal government to resolve the issues of forest land and land acquisition so that the delayed projects could be completed soon.
The Nepali leaders further thanked Mr Jaitley for India’s development assistance especially post-earthquake reconstruction of Nepal. (UNI)
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