Nepal to use remittance to develop hydro-power projects

The Nepal government announced a scheme to invest remittance money by migrant workers for developing hydro- power project, officials said here on Tuesday.

Proposed by Hydro-power Investment and Development Company ( HIDC), a company formed by the government to fund hydro-power projects here, the Energy Ministry has been working towards implementing the idea within this year.

"Studies suggest the remittance money sent by the Nepali migrant workers back home can be sufficient to develop hydro-power plant with a capacity between 200-400 MW," Deepak Rauniyar, chief executive officer at the HIDC told Xinhua by phone.

He said the collected money sent as remittance will be invested by the HIDC as equity.

"The profit from the project will be put under pension fund and will be distributed to the returnees from foreign employment as per their investment during their retired life," said Rauniyar adding, "They will work abroad till they can while they will get the pension from the profit in their old age."

Nepal ranked the third among countries receiving the highest proportion of remittance in gross domestic product (GDP). The country's remittance reached 25 percent of its GDP in 2012, according to a recent report by the World Bank.

During the 10 months of the last fiscal year, Nepal received remittance worth 4.44 billion U.S. dollars.

"The project to be built with remittance will help curbing the protracted power woes while it will also help in capital formation out of the amount that are now spent for luxury and other unproductive purposes," a high level official at Energy Ministry said seeking anonymity.

He said the proposal will be endorsed from the Finance Ministry within a month and the construction is expected to complete within this year.