Kathmandu, January 12: About 525 Indian companies engaged in a range of activities from manufacture to tourism have created 58,161 jobs in the Himalayan nation, and India is the biggest source of foreign investment, statistics from the government revealed.
Statistics provided by Nepal’s Department of Industry (DoI) showed that the total project cost of these 525 Indian ventures stood at Rs.66,612.82 million, with total fixed cost of around Rs.54,603.67 million. The component of foreign direct investment was almost Rs.34,809.5 million up to the middle of the year 2013, the report said.
The Indian embassy also said that Indian firms were the biggest investors in Nepal, accounting for 47.5 percent of total FDI proposals approved. Direct investment of Indian Rs.42.53 billion (approx US $448 million) has flowed into Nepal.
The statistics also showed that since Indian companies started investing in Nepal decades ago, by mid-2013, 303 manufacturing firms, 125 service-related industries, 54 tourism-related ventures, seven agro-based industries, 17 construction firms, 13 energy based and six minerals-related industries, firms and companies have operated in Nepal.
The second largest investor in Nepal is China, whose 478 firms and industries have created 26,651 jobs in Nepal.
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