Anup Upreti and Shreejesh Ghimire on Financing Nepal’s Infrastructure and Development (Part 1)

There prevail challenges to financing Nepal's development and growth in the midst of its limited sources of funding available. In this current climate of limited funding, foreign aid, foreign direct investment, and domestic resources have played a crucial role to sustain Nepal’s economy. Nepal has received financial assistance from several countries, including the US, Japan, and the UK, as well as international multilateral organizations like the World Bank and Asian Development Bank. The government has also implemented policies to attract foreign investment, particularly in sectors such as hydropower, tourism, and manufacturing. Additionally, Nepal has been focusing on increasing tax revenues and promoting entrepreneurship and small and medium enterprises to boost economic growth. However, there is a need for better coordination and monitoring of the use of funds, as well as a focus on creating an enabling environment for private sector investment to sustain growth and development in the long term.

In this episode, the first of a two-part series, PEI Executive Director Saumitra Neupane sits down with two guests, Anup Upreti and Shreejesh Ghimire to discuss the current state of, and the future of development financing in Nepal. They also discuss some of the underlying factors for Nepal's inability to mobilize financing for infrastructure and economic development and the roles and challenges of mobilizing foreign capital in the country.

Anup is a legal expert who regularly advises clients on diverse transactional matters ranging from foreign investment and project finance to private equity. He is the Managing Partner of Pioneer Law Associates and specializes in financial laws, foreign investment, private equity, and capital markets. He holds a degree in Banking and Financial Law from the Queen Mary University of London, U.K. Similarly, Shreejesh is the Chief Investment Officer at NMB Bank Ltd. and was formerly the CEO of NMB Capital Limited. He is an MBA graduate from Kathmandu University School of Management, specializing in Finance, Marketing. He also holds a BMCC from Pune University, India.

This episode has been partly funded by the generous contribution of VRock & Company.

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