Himal Press 
KATHMANDU: The government has received foreign direct investment (FDI) commitments worth Rs 25.77 billion over the first six months of the fiscal year 2024/25.
According to the Department of Industry (DoI), Rs 4.74 billion of the total commitments came through the traditional approval route, while Rs 251.4 million worth of investment commitments came through an online-based system. A total of 16 FDI commitments came in the sixth month (mid-Dec to mid-Jan) alone. With this, the number of industries receiving FDI commitments between mid-July 2024 to mid-January 2025 of the current fiscal year has reached 354 projects.
A majority of FDI commitments have come for small industries. According to the DoI, 345 out of 354 companies receiving FDI commitments are small, while five are medium and four are large.
Nearly half of FDI commitments received during the period are for enterprises in the tourism sector. According to DoI, 44% of the total FDI commitments, or 157, are for the tourism sector. ICT is second with 119 firms, or 34% of total FDI commitments, followed by services (13%), manufacturing (7%) and agriculture (6.2%) and industries (2%). Energy and mineral sectors did not receive any FDI commitment in the review period.
In terms of the committed amount, a whopping 59.66% of the committed amount is in the tourism sector. The services sector is next with 20% of the committed amount, followed by manufacturing (8%), ICT (3%) and agriculture (3%).
These ventures have proposed to create 338,517 jobs.
Meanwhile, foreign investors repatriated Rs 1.61 billion as their dividend income in the review period. Similarly, Nepali firms paid Rs 608.38 million as royalty and another Rs 384.86 million as a service fee to different international firms during the six-month period.
