Kathmandu, August 18
Nepal received foreign direct investment (FDI) commitments worth just Rs 3.77 billion in the first month of the current fiscal year 2026/27, a sharp decline from the same period last year.
According to the Department of Industry, a total of 191 industries and projects received FDI commitments in the first month of the fiscal year.
In the first month of fiscal year 2025/26, Nepal had received FDI commitments worth Rs 24.10 billion, meaning the commitment this year has fallen by more than 84% compared to the same period last year.
The number of projects receiving commitments, however, has increased. Last year, 127 projects received FDI commitments during the first month.
The sharp difference in the investment figures is largely due to a single major project approved last year.
A commitment of Rs 20.45 billion had been made for a processed cooked buffalo meat factory that was planned to export buffalo meat from Nepal to China.
No similarly large investment commitment has been recorded during the first month of the current fiscal year.
This year, FDI commitments have mainly come for small-scale industries, while only one large investment commitment has been recorded. Two medium-scale industries have also received commitments.
Automatic route attracts most commitments
The largest share of FDI commitments this year has come through the automatic approval route.
The government removed the upper limit on investments eligible for approval through the automatic route, resulting in an increase in the number of FDI approvals through the system.
The automatic route allows eligible foreign investments to receive approval without going through the conventional approval process.
IT dominates in number, tourism in investment
Information technology (IT) projects accounted for the largest share of approved projects in terms of number.
A total of 128 IT industries were registered during Shrawan, receiving FDI commitments worth Rs 569.8 million.
Tourism ranked second in terms of the number of projects, with 33 industries receiving commitments worth Rs 1.63 billion.
Service-sector industries ranked third, with 19 projects receiving FDI commitments worth Rs 682 million.
Manufacturing ranked fourth, with nine projects receiving commitments worth Rs 843.2 million.
Meanwhile, one industry each was registered in the agriculture and energy sectors. Each sector received FDI commitments of Rs 20 million.
The figures show that while IT dominates Nepal’s FDI pipeline by the number of projects, tourism continues to attract significantly larger amounts of foreign investment per project.
