S3: Financial Investment

Domestic investment alone is not enough to realize double-digit growth rate that is needed to achieve Nepal’s target of becoming a middle-income economy by 2030. To attain such unprecedented growth, we will need both Foreign Direct and Domestic investments. In this context, the symposium will discuss investment prospects and challenges in Nepal, explore incentives and facilities given to investors by the Government of Nepal, and aim to recommend a number of changes needed in investment laws, especially in Foreign Investment and Technology Transfer Act – 2019, to attract enough investments. It will also investigate existing financial laws and suggest necessary improvements that can
facilitate economic growth of Nepal.

Coordinators:

Anal Raj Bhattarai is a Chartered Accountant qualified in May 1995. Since then, he is involved in Banking, Corporate Advisory, and Policy advocacy. Bhattarai, has wide array of practice areas ranging from foreign investment and establishing Bank.

Over the years, ARB has established three Banks and served as Founding Chief Executive Officer of Commerz and Trust Bank Nepal Ltd, Sanima Bank and Founding General Manager of Clean Energy Development Bank. Bhattarai has served Nepal Bank Limited as Chief Manager.

Bhattarai is a National Council Member of Confederation of Nepalese Industries (CNI) and Convener of Banking and Finance Committee of CNI. His engagement includes policy dialogue and negotiation with government and regulators. Currently Bhattarai works as Senior Financial Sector consultant at different National and International organization. Bhattarai is a Certified Trainer of Microfinance (MFTOT).

In addition to this, he is instrumental in suggesting and advocating various policy reform. He also strongly believes in knowledge sharing and disseminating knowledge to the business fraternity and stakeholders, through academic presentations and publications.

Mr Ranjeet Mahato

Session Chair:

Mr Maha Prasad Adhikari was appointed as the 17thGovernor of the Central Bank of Nepal, Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB) in April 2020. Prior to his appointment as the Governor of NRB, he served as Chief Executive Officer at the Investment Board Nepal (IBN), Government of Nepal. Preceding his tenure at the IBN, Mr. Adhikari was Deputy Governor of Nepal Rastra Bank for the five-year period starting from December 2010.

During his career as a central banker spanning more than three decades, Governor Mr. Adhikari has accrued vast experience in central banking operations especially relating to financial stability, financial sector reforms, central banking operation, Anti Money Laundering/Combating the Financing of Terrorism (AML/CFT) initiatives among others. He has played an instrumental role in modernization of both NRB and financial sector of the country. Governor Mr. Adhikari has actively worked in making the domestic financial system more robust as well as resilient and in devising customized supervisory tools for the country’s financial institutions. As a convener for the committee on resolving the cooperative crisis, he played a key role in concluding this.

Governor Mr. Adhikari also headed a committee that contributed in resolving the real estate problem in Nepal. Governor Mr. Adhikari is a chartered accountant from the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India and is a Fellow chartered accountant of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nepal.

 Moderator

Dr. Bindu N. Lohani was Vice-President of the Asian Development Bank (ADB) for Knowledge Management and Sustainable Development until June 2015.  Prior to that, Dr. Lohani was Vice-President (Finance and Administration) of ADB. He was The Secretary of the ADB Board. Dr. Lohani also served as Chair of Investment Committee of the Pension Fund, Chair of Asset Liability Management Committee, Chair of Crisis Management Committee, and Chief Compliance Officer.

Before joining ADB, he worked for the Government of Nepal (relating to the infrastructure departments) and was Division Chairman at the Asian Institute of Technology (AIT), an independent post-graduate institution located at Bangkok.

Dr. Lohani is Distinguished Adjunct Faculty at AIT (Thailand ) , Distinguished Fellow at Centennial Group , USA and  Professor (Advisory) at Tongi University , Professor at Shenzhen University and was Visiting Faculty In Tsinghua University in  China. He serves in Boards and Advisory Roles in several countries including Japan, Korea , Thailand , Philippines , Ireland , Singapore ,  India , Nepal and USA.

Dr. Lohani holds a Doctoral degree in Engineering and has been awarded four Honorary Doctoral Degrees (in Australia, Philippines and India). He has completed several High Level Management and Leadership programs, including those offered by Yale University, University of Chicago and Columbia University.

He is an elected member of the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) of United States (the highest professional distinction accorded to an engineer in USA), a Diplomate of the American Academy of Environmental Engineers. He has been awarded “ Lifetime Achievement Award” by Nepal Engineer’s Association and China Green Award. He was inducted to “AIT Hall of Fame” in 2019 (received from The HRH Princess of Thailand).

Speaker

Mr. Bhisma Raj Dhungana

Mr.  Dhungana (Chairman) Securities Board of Nepal is in the role of Chairman (Executive) of Securities Board of Nepal (SEBON) since January 2020. Mr. Dhungana has 30 years’ experience in the central banking. He joined NRB in 1989 AD as an Assistant Director and took charge as Deputy Director in Public Debt Management Department in 2002 AD. Thereafter, he also worked for Banks and Financial Institutions Regulation Department for 6 years and 2 years in Bank Supervision Department. He was co-coordinator for monitoring Financial Sector Reform Program in Nepal. This had included restructuring program of Nepal’s two big commercial Banks, i.e. Nepal Bank Limited and Rastriya Banijya Bank Ltd, which were monitored and the performance of foreign management teams were supervised by him, and consequently these institutions are being successfully operated thereafter. In June 2011, he was transferred to Foreign Exchange Management Department as Director and was subsequently promoted to Executive Director where he assumed as the chief of this department. He has initiated many policies to reform and facilitate the foreign exchange market in Nepal.

Mr Dhungana has been the key to design development oriented as well as private sector friendly policies during his tenure in NRB. He worked on drafting the NRB Act 2058 and other several acts related to banking sector. He is initiator in building portfolio of Indian Currency and Renminbi bonds in the Nepal Rastra Bank. He introduced the Hedging solution concept in the central banking. He served as member of Board of Directors in various financial institutions.  He has also served as Alternate Director in the Asian Clearing Union (ACU), Iran.

As a chairman of SEBON, he has begun to adopt various reform measures in Nepalese securities market predominantly functionalizing the full-fledged online trading system and other institutional,  operational and legal reforms.

Mr. Dhungana received Master in Business Administration (Finance) Degree from University of Linchonshire and Humberside, London UK, Master in Economics from Tribhuvan University (TU) and Bachelor in Commerce from TU, Nepal.

Mr Sandeep Mohanty

Sandeep has over a decade of professional experience in management consulting. Sandeep is a postgraduate (MBA) from XIMB and specializes in Finance and Strategy. He has worked with a number of state and central Government entities, investors, global funds and private equity clients on financing strategy, policy advisory, planning, PPP, investments, market research, financial modelling and value analysis, commercial and regulatory due-diligence, contract review and strategic advice on growth/ market entry/ expansion/ auction buyout/ divestures.

He has a background of establishing and working with infrastructure funds (such as DFID, GGEF (NIIF), StanC PE, Lonestar funds etc.) and advising on fund structuring, infrastructure projects, valuation and due diligence. He is also extensively networked with Indian and UK Infrastructure funds. He has worked extensively in supporting various funds in carving opportunity areas in SAARC region and setting up operations in respective countries.

In Nepal, Sandeep leads the overall engagement for the Financial Sector Stability Programme (FSSP) with Nepal Infrastructure Bank Limited (NIFRA) and the engagement with Nepal Rastra Bank and Ministry of Finance (MoF) on hedging mechanism. On MoF request, Sandeep developed guidelines for the hedging fee, time and renewal of hedging solution certificate for Nepal. For NIFRA, Sandeep has been engaged in providing TA for issuance of Green Bond, conducting feasibility study of specialized sector funds in the infrastructure space, development of pipeline of projects. He also developed curriculum and provided training on areas such as project financing, financing sources, financial viability analysis and lenders’ due diligence to NIFRA staff.

Mrs Urmila Shrestha

Mr Abhishek Basnyat is the Economic & Commercial Specialist at the U.S. Embassy in Kathmandu, Nepal, since November 2017. Prior to this he served at the Bank of England, London, as a financial sector supervisor for 7 years. Before that, he was a Research Analyst at the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank for 4 years. Abhishek has a B.A. in Economics from Williams College, USA, and an MSc. in Development Economics from Oxford University, UK.

Mr Sushil Bhatta

Panelist

Anup Raj Upreti
Title: Managing Partner
Pioneer Law Associates
Profile:
Anup Raj Upreti is the Managing Partner of Pioneer Law Associates, Kathmandu Nepal. He is a Licensed Advocate of Nepal Bar Council, and has been practicing commercial law for more than 18 years. Upreti regularly advises clients on diverse transactional matters ranging from foreign investment, projectfinance to private equity. He is also involved in commercial litigation on behalf of various local and
international clients. Upreti has also been involved in legal reform projects covering banking and finance, corporate, insolvency and hydropower laws.
For his outstanding knowledge and service delivery to the clients, Chambers Asia Pacific has ranked him as a leading individual (Band 1) in the practice of corporate/commercial law in Nepal since 2015.

Specialization:
Upreti specializes in financial laws, foreign investment, private equity and capital markets. He has also extensive practice in the areas of telecommunication, taxation, energy and project finance, and has keen interest in dispute resolution and legal and regulatory reforms.

Jiba Lamichhane

Mr Vishnu Agrawal

MD of MAW Group of Companies which is a distributorship organization with Sole Distributorship of products like Yamaha Motorcycle, Skoda Cars, JCB heavy Equipment, Fiat Cars, JEEP Cars, Trane – Air Condition, Mettler Toledo – Weighing Solution, Foton Vehicle, KONE Lifts, Ingersoll Rand, HP Lubricants, Yamaha Music etc. for whole Nepal employing more than 1000 people.

EDUCATION

Commerce Graduate from Tribhuvan University

Involvement in business Organisation

1. Vice President of Confederation of Nepalese Industries
2. Convener for Infrastructure Committee of CNI. Conducted Infrastructure Summit of Nepal successfully with participation of Prime Minister of Nepal Hon’ble Mr. Sushil Koirala and Hon’ble Union Minister of Road, Transport, Highways of Shipping of Government of India Mr. Nitin Jairam Gadkari successfully.
3. Ex-Convener for Confederation of Nepalese Industries, Young Entrepreneurs Forum (CNI – YEF). Lead a team to Srilanka for Development of business between Nepal and Srilanka. Headed a team representing Nepal in Mumbai.
4. Vice President and Chairman of the ‘Corporate Social Responsibility Committee’ of Confederation of Nepalese Industries

Honorary Consul General of the CZech Republic

Has been Honorary Consul General of the Czech Republic since 2016 and before that Honorary Consul of the Czech Republic since 2011 to 2015

1. Hosted Various Business Delegation from Czech Republic and took delegations to Czech Republic and have been part of relationship building activities in between Nepal and Czech Republic.

Mr Bhuvan Dahal

Nepal Bankers’ Association (NBA) has elected Bhuvan Dahal as the Chairman of the Association. Mr. Dahal is the CEO of Sanima Bank.