Entrepreneurs attribute this decline to the slowdown in investments to rising interest rates, adverse impact on the cash flow of businesses, and a huge drop in market demand for goods and services. Pashupati Murarka, former president of the Federation of Nepalese Chambers of Commerce and Industry says the ongoing economic crisis has discouraged the private sector from going to investment expansion.
“As the economy is going through a recession, industrialists who earlier planned to invest in new business projects have chosen to stay in ‘wait-and-watch’ mode,” said Murarka. According to the Economic Survey, foreign direct investment (FDI) has also declined by 34.5 percent during this period. DoI registered 159 industries committing to bring FDI worth Rs 20.56bn to the country. In the last fiscal year, 149 industries were registered who'd committed to investing Rs 31.83bn. Surge in small industries' registration While there has been a decline in the registration of large industries, the registration of small and micro industries has increased. According to the Economic Survey, a total of 673,244 small and micro industries were registered in the current fiscal year compared to 550,776 industries in the last fiscal year. More than 15,000 companies registered The registration of companies/firms at the Office of the Company Registrar has decreased this year. A total of 15,187 companies were registered in the current fiscal year compared to 21,902 companies in the last fiscal year.
