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Nepal is seeing an increasing flow of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI), bringing both opportunities and challenges to the country’s economy. FDI occurs when individuals, companies, or investors from other countries put money into Nepalese businesses. This could mean building factories, opening hotels, setting up IT companies, or purchasing shares in existing enterprises.

Unlike simple trade, FDI means that foreign investors become a part of Nepal’s economy, contributing not only money but also skills, technology, and know-how. Over the past few years, the Nepalese government has worked to create a favorable environment for investors by simplifying laws, streamlining approval processes, and offering incentives in priority sectors. These measures are intended to encourage investment across agriculture, tourism, manufacturing, energy, and technology. FDI plays a critical role in Nepal’s development because it brings much-needed capital for growth, generates employment, transfers technology, and strengthens the country’s global economic connections.

Recent data through Sept 2025 highlights a promising trend for Nepal. During the first two months of the fiscal year, Nepal secured Rs 33.09bn in FDI commitments across 236 projects, including 225 small-scale, four medium-scale, and seven large-scale industries. The agriculture sector accounted for the highest value of commitments, with Rs 21.598bn pledged for nine projects. Tourism followed with Rs 6.692bn for 79 projects, while manufacturing, services, and energy sectors received Rs 1.24bn, Rs 2.815bn, and Rs 182.55m, respectively. Additionally, the Information Technology sector secured Rs 562.754m across 120 projects. These investments are expected to generate employment for thousands of Nepalis, provide new opportunities for local businesses to partner with foreign investors, and bring in advanced technologies and modern business practices.

Since the establishment of the Department of Industry, Nepal has approved 7,475 projects with total FDI commitments amounting to Rs 684.51bn. Despite the strong commitments, only a portion of this promised investment has been realized, with net FDI inflows for fiscal year 2023/24 totaling Rs 8.4bn, marking a 36.1 percent increase from the previous year. The total FDI stock in Nepal as of mid-2024 reached Rs 333bn, with the service sector holding the largest share at 40.5 percent, followed by industry and manufacturing at 29 percent each. Investors originate from around 60 countries, with India, China, Singapore, Ireland, and South Korea topping the list, while Bagmati Province continues to receive the highest concentration of investments, accounting for 62 percent of total FDI stock.

Several reforms and government initiatives have contributed to this upward trend in investment. Legal changes have simplified procedures for investors, including the introduction of an automatic approval route for certain projects, allowing investors to receive faster approval without multiple layers of bureaucracy. Foreign investors can now invest through registered venture capital or specialized funds, while some restrictions remain in certain agricultural sectors, such as dairy or vegetable production, unless projects focus on exports.

The Department of Industry has also improved visa arrangements for investors, their representatives, and family members, making Nepal a more welcoming destination for foreign capital. Faster approval processes reduce delays and costs, encouraging investors to launch projects promptly. The government’s support, combined with sector-specific incentives and reforms, has improved Nepal’s appeal as an investment destination and fostered confidence among international companies looking to participate in the country’s economic growth.

Despite these positive developments, challenges remain in ensuring that FDI commitments translate into actual investments. Historically, only about 31.9 percent of approved projects are realized due to delays in project implementation, long setup times, or changes in investor priorities. Weak infrastructure, including limited access to reliable electricity, water, and transport networks, continues to impede large-scale projects, particularly in less developed regions. Governance and risk management remain concerns for investors, as corruption, bureaucratic delays, and uncertainties about property rights can affect the safety of capital and the return on investment.

Long-term projects, such as hydropower plants, industrial complexes, and large-scale tourism initiatives, require stability, robust regulatory frameworks, and efficient administration. Furthermore, foreign investors often need guidance on repatriation of profits and management of financial obligations to avoid excessive debt accumulation. These factors highlight the importance of addressing institutional weaknesses, upgrading infrastructure, and ensuring transparent and predictable legal processes.

Corporate law firm in Nepal have emerged as vital partners in supporting foreign investors. These firms provide comprehensive legal guidance on FDI regulations, company registration, tax obligations, and compliance requirements. They assist investors in setting up businesses, whether as joint ventures with local partners or as wholly foreign-owned entities.

Legal experts also draft and negotiate complex agreements, including Share Subscription Agreements, Share Purchase Agreements, and Technology Transfer Agreements. Law firms support investors in obtaining regulatory approvals, managing visas, and resolving disputes, ensuring contractual rights are protected. By advising on finance structures, dividend repatriation, and ongoing compliance, corporate law firms reduce risk and improve the likelihood of successful long-term investment.

With the right legal and regulatory support, combined with continued reforms and government incentives, Nepal has the potential to leverage FDI as a powerful engine for sustainable economic growth, regional development, employment generation, and technological advancement, ultimately benefiting the country’s economy and its citizens.

Prabin Kumar Yadav

Kathmandu School of Law

In a country where developmental needs are varied due to diverse geography and scarce resources, data bridges the gap between need and policy. Data holds the power to transform numbers into action. For Nepal to navigate the complexities of federalism, development, equity, and governance, evidence‑based policy anchored in reliable and timely data is needed. Without it, resource allocation becomes guesswork, progress remains invisible, and governance risks being reactive rather than strategic.

The latest official measures of governance data use in Nepal show a marked and slow improvement, but there is a big room for growth. Nepal’s Statistical Performance Indicator (SPI) for Pillar 5: Data Infrastructure has remained low and stagnant, recorded at 20.0 (scale 0–100) in both 2018 and 2019. The score averaged 20.0 from 2016 to 2019, showing no improvement over the years. Notably, it reached a high of 25.0 in 2016 before declining to 20.0, indicating a downward trend in data infrastructure performance. Data is not simply about numbers, but it’s about making those numbers matter to citizens, communities, and decision‑makers alike.

Why data?

Data sits at the nexus of effective policy and accountable governance. When policymakers can look at real‑time indicators of need, they can direct services where they will matter most. They can track trends, measure outcomes, adjust strategies, and justify decisions. Globally, institutions such as the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the World Bank emphasize that data‑driven governance improves targeting, boosts transparency, and helps monitor whether policies are actually working.

In Nepal, the potential is enormous. The national planning body, census agencies, and statistical offices already collect demographic, health, education, and economic data. For example, a report by the national statistical office indicates that the federal, provincial, and local levels are beginning to use census and survey data to allocate budgets, adjust infrastructure plans, and monitor development programs. The promise is clear: if used well, data can shift governance from being reactive to strategic. But a big push is needed to implement it.

The country’s effort

Nepal has begun to recognize the transformative power of data in shaping effective policies and governance decisions. In the health sector, the Health Management Information System (HMIS) has been instrumental in tracking health indicators of people. During the COVID-19 pandemic, it helped to track vaccination rates across provinces. This real-time data enabled the Ministry of Health and Population to identify low-coverage areas and deploy targeted interventions, ensuring equitable vaccine access.

Similarly, in disaster management, the integration of meteorological and seismic data into early warning systems has strengthened disaster preparedness. The Department of Hydrology and Meteorology and the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Authority (NDRRMA) now use real-time weather and flood forecasting models to issue community-level alerts, saving lives during monsoon floods.

The country has also taken steps toward open data and transparency. The adoption of open government data policies and the use of open-source software are aimed at making public sector information more accessible, while initiatives to develop unified data repositories are underway to reduce fragmentation. Capacity-building programs for government officials, alongside efforts to improve data governance, security, and regulatory frameworks, are part of Nepal’s broader strategy to institutionalize evidence-based policy-making. These combined efforts reflect a growing recognition that reliable, timely, and accessible data are essential for effective governance, development planning, and citizen engagement.

Challenges and recommendations

Nepal faces several structural, institutional, and technical challenges that limit the full realization of data in governance. Data quality and timeliness remain a major hurdle. The study shows that traditional methods of collecting data, such as paper-based surveys and censuses, are conducted intermittently, and administrative data systems at local levels can be fragmented or outdated, which creates a huge data gap. For instance, the Nepal Demographic and Health Survey occurs every five years, the National Population and Housing Census every ten years, and the Nepal Living Standards Survey follows a similar decade-long cycle. The traditional data collection methods often create data errors.  In contrast, non-traditional data sources such as satellite imagery, mobile data, and digital reporting can provide real-time or near-real-time insights. Integrating these alternative data streams can help bridge information gaps, strengthen monitoring and reporting, and ultimately support more timely and evidence-based decision-making in governance and policy.

Further, the access and integration of data across levels of government is weak. Often, agencies hold data in silos, with little coordination, and users (policymakers, civil society, and academia) struggle to access machine‑readable formats. The rising use of open-source software is also supporting innovation and efficiency in governance and development efforts. Moreover, by adopting open Application Programming Interfaces (APIs), the government can make public data more accessible through user-friendly digital platforms, empowering citizens to engage with information more effectively and promoting a culture of openness in policymaking.

Capacity and data literacy remain major challenges in Nepal, which often lead to decisions based on intuition rather than evidence. Even when quality data are available, many officials lack the skills to interpret or use them effectively. Limited training, weak institutional support, and a lack of data-driven culture. Building technical skills and promoting data literacy are essential to turn information into actionable insights for better governance. 

While the country has introduced a data protection law, its implementation is still evolving, and comprehensive frameworks for managing, sharing, and securing data are limited. In digital governance, issues such as fragmented database management, inconsistent security standards, and unclear institutional responsibilities have been repeatedly highlighted. The 2019 World Bank’s “Envisioning a Future Data Ecosystem in Federal Nepal” stresses the need to update the statistical act, build foundational registers (people, places, and businesses), and promote links between data producers and users. For Nepal to make the leap from data collection to data‑driven governance and policy, a concerted, multi‑pronged effort is needed.

However, turning this vision into reality will require sustained investment, institutional commitment, and cultural change. It means that the next census, survey, or administrative register is not simply an annual ritual but a living resource that informs real decisions, monitors real outcomes, and fosters trust between citizens and their government. The question for Nepal today is not if data matters, but how to make it matter. The time for a data‑driven Nepal is now.

I started my journey in scientific learning at the age of five. I self-studied geography, the shape of countries, their flags and capital cities. Using my globe, I could name a large portion of the countries, and their geographical boundaries. At the beginning, my major learning source was an educational YouTube channel called ‘Kids Learning Tube’. I continued my journey by uncovering the 118 elements in the Periodic Table. I studied the names and symbols of the elements. 

On a momentous day in UKG, I received homework to draw the Solar System. Ever since I received this homework, I illustrated more versions of the Solar Systems, and grew an immense passion for astronomy. By watching astronomy videos on Kids Learning Tube, I studied the five dwarf planets, the asteroid belt, the Kuiper belt, the Oort cloud and other astronomical and interstellar objects. 

As my curiosity grew with age, I branched out my interests into a wide spectrum of science related topics, especially astronomy and astrophysics. I acquired more sources of learning through the YouTube channel Kurzgesagt. They explore topics related to science, philosophy and mathematics through animated videos. Cell To Singularity, was another source of learning that helped me answer my curiosity on Human evolution. It is an educational app which progressively explores the fruits of evolution in a tech tree. There are also continuous 3-day events, which explore other branches of knowledge, such as the Extinction Events, the Philosophy Events, the James Webb Space Telescope event.

My list of leaning through the years:

• The entirety of the Solar System, from formation to its end.
• The Milky Way Galaxy.
• The Big Bang Theory.
• The Big Rip Theory.
• The Big Crunch Theory.
• Heat Death.
• Stars: their formation, their classification and their end.
• White Dwarfs, Black Dwarfs
• Supernova, Black hole, Neutron Stars and Gravastar.
• The Human Immune System.
• The deadliest diseases: Malaria, Rabies, Naegleria Fowleri etc.

When it comes to science my greatest inspirations are Albert Einstein: The Father of Science, Nikola Tesla: The greatest Inventor and Stephen Hawkings for his theorem on Black Holes. Science is not just a subject; it has become a way of life. It’s like the Dharma that one lives with every day. I have barely scratched the fundamentals of science, and I aspire to explore even deeper expanding my knowledge. Science knows no Country because Knowledge belongs to Humanity and is the torch that illuminates the world.

Binayak Shrestha

Grade VI

Aarambha Sanskar Vidyalaya

The world around us is full of noise—cars honking, factories buzzing, and machines running. But behind all this sound, there’s a quiet voice we often forget to hear. It is the voice of nature—the trees, rivers, mountains, and animals—softly crying for help.

From the green hills of Nepal to the big cities of the world, our Earth is slowly losing its beauty. The air is filled with smoke, the rivers are turning dirty, and the forests are disappearing. Nature keeps speaking to us, but we have stopped listening.

In a small village in Nepal, a little girl named Aasha once asked her teacher, “Sir, why can’t I see the butterflies my grandmother used to see?” The question sounds simple, yet it is deeply sad. It shows how, with each new generation, a piece of nature’s beauty is fading away.

Today, many children grow up with phones and video games. But some have never climbed a tree, played in the rain, or seen a clear river. If they never see nature’s beauty, how will they learn to love and protect it?

Young people are full of ideas and energy. In Kathmandu, a boy named Sujan and his friends have started planting trees every Saturday. He says, “We cannot fix the whole world, but we can do our part.” Students in many countries are doing the same—cleaning rivers, planting trees, and spreading awareness. Their efforts give hope that our generation can bring back the green world that is slowly disappearing.

Adults, on the other hand, are busy with work and daily life. They build cities, run businesses, and chase success. But in this race, they sometimes forget that clean air and pure water are far more valuable than gold or silver.

A teacher in Bhaktapur once said, “When I was a child, I played in fresh streams. Now my students wear masks to school.” We must remember: when nature becomes sick, we cannot stay healthy.

The elderly among us remember a different world—a world full of trees, the songs of birds, and clear blue skies. Hari Baje, from a village in Lamjung, recalls, “When I was young, we used to drink straight from the river. Now even the fish are gone.” Their memories are lessons for us. They remind us of how beautiful the Earth once was—and how we must protect what is left.

Nature’s pain is not only Nepal’s problem. It is the world’s problem—the problem of all humans. One country faces forest fires, while another struggles with polluted oceans. But Earth is one home, and we all live in it together. If we destroy nature in one place, life suffers everywhere. Still, it is not too late. The Earth can heal itself if we care for it. If we plant trees, save water, and keep our surroundings clean, even small actions can make a big difference. Nature forgives easily—one tree can give shade, fruit, and life to many.If every person does a little, together we can do a lot.

Nature is not something outside of us—it is part of us. When we care for it, we care for ourselves. And when we harm it, we harm our own future. So let us promise to listen to the silent cry of nature—by planting, protecting, and living in harmony with the Earth. Because Earth is not just our home for today—it is the home of every tomorrow.

Samunnat Sharma

Grade VIII

Sanskar Pathshala, Dang