Butwal. There are 67 foreign investment industries operating in Lumbini province. Among them, 34 are small, 16 are medium and 17 are large. Ujjwal Prasad Kasju, a central member of the Federation of Nepalese Industries and Commerce, presented the data while speaking about business opportunities and challenges in Lumbini Province at the Interim Program of the International Finance Corporation (IFC) held in Butwal.
He said that Lumbini province is also an attractive area for foreign investment and said that foreign investment is the first choice in service sector, production sector and tourism sector. Apart from that, there are 882 big, domestic and small industries about 25,000 and 150,000 commercial establishments in Lumbini province.
The total area of Lumbini province is 22 thousand 288 square kilometers with 12 districts including 6 in the Terai and 6 in the hills. He informed that as this province has abundant agricultural land and is a naturally rich province, there is good potential in agriculture and forestry based industries and tourism industry. According to him, the contribution of Lumbini province to the national gross domestic product is about 14 percent.
There are two industrial zones in Lumbini province, Special Economic Zone in Bhairahawa. Apart from that, Bhairawa-Lumbini, Butwal-Bhairawa, Bhairawa-Parasi, Parasi-Bhumhi are the main industrial corridors. 50 percent of the total industries in Lumbini province are located in these corridors alone. Similarly, there are proposed Motipur industrial zone in Rupandehi, nine industrial zones in Bakay. He said that due to the delay in the construction and operation of these industrial areas, the expansion of industry and foreign investment could not be intensified.
Similarly, Thakur Shrestha, president of Siddharthnagar Chamber of Commerce and Industry, said that despite the good potential of investment in the province, due to policy ambiguity, there was not enough investment attraction, and due to the long-standing lack of investable capital generated in banks and financial institutions and the unnatural increase in interest rates, the industrial establishments were unable to sustain themselves. Told.
In the event, International IFC Resident Representative Babakar S. Fei informed that IFC, a member of the World Bank Group, is the largest global development organization focused on the private sector in emerging markets and is working in more than 100 countries using capital, expertise and influence to create markets and opportunities in developing countries.