Kathmandu. KATHMANDU: Former President of the Federation of Nepalese Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FNCCI) and IME Group Chairman Chandra Prasad Dhakal has said that skills and capital of Korean return entrepreneurs should be made a major basis for economic transformation in Nepal.

In his address to an interaction organized by Nepal-Korea Entrepreneurs’ Entrepreneurs’ Association here today, he described the Nepal-Korea relations as a living example of diplomatic and cultural as well as economic and commercial partnership. He viewed that skills, experience and capital gained by thousands of Nepali youths working in Korea would be invaluable assets for Nepal’s entrepreneurship development.

He said that the lessons adopted by Korea sixty years ago when it made a leap from poverty to industrial power, emphasis on quality, technology development, export-oriented production and government-private coordination could be applied in Nepal as well. He was of the view that the industrial character of Nepal could be changed if the discipline and productivity-based work culture learned by the return entrepreneurs could be implemented in domestic industries.

Dhakal said there was ample potential for investment in hydropower, agro processing, tourism, information technology and other small and medium-scale production sectors in Nepal. “We have been continuously in dialogue with the government for investment-friendly policy and one-door service and this campaign needs to be intensified,” he said.

Stating that Nepal Development Company Limited has been established with a capital of Rs 10 billion to invest in big projects by pooling small capital scattered across the country, he said that the company will be the investment partner for the returnees who want to start a new business.

Stating that technical skills, work culture and financial discipline of the returnee entrepreneurs were the most necessary areas for Nepal’s industrial sector, he said that the legal and procedural obstacles surfaced in course of establishing enterprises in the country could be removed through regular dialogue among the government, private sector and stakeholders.

In the end, he wished that the investment and skills of the returnee entrepreneurs would write a new chapter of production, employment and prosperity in the country.