On the eve of the investment conference, Nepal's sovereign credit assessment process proceeded

The Ministry of Finance has organized a 'Sovereign Credit Rating' capacity development workshop with stakeholders in the capital on Friday. Speaking at the opening session of the

workshop, Minister Pun said that the rating work will be started without delay. He said that after the credit rating, the world will be able to see the economic face of Nepal and no one should go around telling statistics about the economic situation.

He emphasized that Nepal must attract foreign investment as it is not possible to develop according to the needs of the country and the aspirations of the people only by mobilizing internal resources. For that, he said that sovereign rating is necessary for investors to know about the financial health of the country.

'We have taken the goal of Vision-2001 to upgrade Nepal to a developed economy by 2100', Minister Pun said, 'for that, at least 7 and a half percent economic growth is necessary . Investment is needed for economic growth. The goal of development cannot be achieved only through public and private investment. Large amount of foreign investment should be increased . With foreign investment, the size of the economy also increases. Since the internal investment will increase along with the external investment, it is necessary to go to the sovereign rating as soon as possible.'' . He said that after meeting with development partners and representatives of the private sector during his visit to America some time ago, he found that Nepal has the attraction of international investors . Minister Pun mentioned that due to not being able to explain at the international level about the environment in which investment and profit can be made in Nepal, foreign investment is not coming as much as expected.

"There are many industrial businesses in Nepal that have been invested by multinational companies and foreign investors, so far I am not aware that even one of them has turned upside down", he said, "What this confirms is that there is a lot of potential for foreign investment in Nepal". We have not yet been able to explain this matter in a way that the international world can understand. Pun clarified that the world should be able to understand that the investment environment in Nepal is good, there are many areas of investment and there is a guarantee of profit. If there was an adverse investment environment as stated outside

, why would investors have come and those who are currently investing would have expanded the area of ​​investment . "We also have many good things." Investors and their representatives from 40 countries have been confirmed to come to the investment conference, Minister Pun asked, "Why are big foreign companies coming to Nepal with the idea of ​​investing if we were in trouble?"

Secretary of the Ministry of Finance Dr. Ramprasad Ghimire said that the stalled process of sovereign credit rating has proceeded . He mentioned that after the rating, the world will get information about the economic condition of Nepal as well as the condition of economic transparency and good governance. After the rating, it was believed that there would be an environment for more foreign investment.

Sovereign credit rating is the main basis among the various bases that show the picture of the country's financial situation and credit capacity. Sovereign credit rating is done to get real information about the country's investment risk situation. Foreign investors have taken the sovereign credit rating as a prerequisite for investment. Due to lack of crediting rating, Nepal has not been able to take commercial loans for large infrastructures from international development partners.

With the aim of increasing foreign investment, the government announced the sovereign credit rating through the budget of the fiscal year 2075/076. The government issued a public notice inviting companies for sovereign credit rating. Fitch, Moody's and Standard & Poor's, the world's three major rating companies, applied. Out of which the government had a credit rating agreement with Fitch Rating Agency. For that, a separate agreement on technical support has also been made with the then British International Cooperation Agency (DFID) and the current UK Aid. For that process, the government has appointed Standard Chartered Bank as a rating consultant.

Due to the Covid-19 epidemic, all the indicators of the economy are negative and the credit rating will send a negative message to the international community. This process was stopped for the last three years. The process of sovereign credit rating has started again with the activation of Finance Minister Varshman Pun Anant. Three years ago, during the international investment conference, foreign investors suggested not to delay the sovereign credit rating.

credit rating training for capacity development In the second session of the program, an international expert on credit rating gave theoretical and technical training on capacity building. 40 people from the Ministry of Finance, National Bank of Nepal, Central Statistics Department, Asset Laundering Department, Securities Board, National Insurance Authority, Rating Advisory Committee members, Task Force Committee members, rating focal persons and representatives of economy-related bodies participated in the training. Narayan Prasad Risal, Head of the Financial Sector Management and Institutional Coordination Division of the Ministry of Finance, said that during the

training, information was obtained about the structural arrangements of the economy, microeconomic conditions, public finance, collection of necessary data, the process of credit rating and the work to be done to achieve the rating level.