Investment Board Nepal and UNDP signs MOU in areas of common interest

A Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) has been signed between the Board of Investment Nepal and the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) with the objective of cooperating in areas of common interest.

The MoU was signed by Sushil Bhatt, Chief Executive Officer of the Board and Ayshanie Medagangoda Labe on behalf of UNDP.

The MoU stipulates institutional capacity building, public-private partnership and cooperation in promoting private investment. This cooperation is expected to help achieve the Sustainable Development Goals by filling the financial gap by promoting investment in Nepal through public (private partnership, private sector investment and mixed finance).

The MoU also stipulates that social and environmental impact assessment criteria, project development agreement and project investment agreement will be studied and researched in the project development and support will be provided for such work.

In order to make the service flow of the Board of Investment more effective, it is mentioned in the MoU that they will jointly move forward in other areas where cooperation can be done including development of standard operating procedure.

Addressing the signing ceremony held at the office of the Board of Investment, CEO Bhatta said that this understanding would create hopes for investment promotion in Nepal. To this end, he emphasized on increasing the internal capacity of the board, minimizing the risks of investors, and promoting exchangeability.

He said that he was working internally to make the Investment Board a center of excellence and hoped that the task of formulating SOPs and setting procedures would be very easy to move forward by managing organizational changes.

Similarly, Labe , said that the United Nations Development Program is cooperating with more than 170 countries in the world.

He said that UNDP was preparing a strategic plan for Nepal for the next five years, adding that it would work with Nepal in the areas of governance, gender, inclusive economic growth and hoped that it would have a positive impact on a diverse country like Nepal.

The program was attended by Bhagwan Aryal, Joint Secretary of the Office of the Investment Board and other staff and advisors and representatives of UNDP Nepal.