KATHMANDU: Vijay Kumar Singh, Minister of State for the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways and Ministry of Civil Aviation of India would be the guest of honor at the upcoming Nepal Infrastructure Summit to be held on September 8-9, 2022 in Kathmandu.
The Confederation of Nepalese Industries (CNI) and the Ministry of Physical Infrastructure and Transport are jointly organizing the two-day event with the theme “Infrastructure for Growth”. The summit is crucial as Nepal faces serious infrastructure problems which have led to a high cost of doing business and eroded the competitiveness of industries in the country.
A major bottleneck in Infrastructure development is the lack of coordination between different agencies and the absence of an effective one-stop service for investors. Investors have to secure approvals from 7 ministries and 23 departments and follow 36 acts. High logistic costs and weak infrastructures in the transport sector are also impediments in the process of infrastructure development.
Nepal has also adopted the Public-Private Partnership (PPP) approach for speedy development in the road, transport, and other infrastructure sectors. The Indian success story in infrastructure development is expected to inspire Nepalese policymakers and entrepreneurs to think differently about infrastructure development.
Indian delegation shall include champions of the Indian infrastructure sector including highways, land port authority, power grid, and the like. While Nepal is landlocked, linkages with Indian infrastructure are inevitable and in such a scenario success in Indian Infrastructure can be easily replicated in Nepal. This summit is expected to draw more than 1000 delegates from more than 25 countries.