Nepal has increasingly opened its doors to foreign direct investment (“FDI”) in recent decades, offering opportunities across a wide range of industries. However, the Foreign Investment and Technology Transfer Act, 2019 (2075) (“FITTA”) and related regulations designate specific sectors as restricted or prohibited for foreign investors.

Below is an overview of the industries and business categories in which foreign investment is either fully prohibited or significantly limited under Nepal’s current legal framework.

1. Industries, except the large Industries exporting at least seventy five percent of their own products, in the sectors of animal husbandry, fisheries, bee-keeping, fruits, vegetables, oilseeds, pulses, dairy business and other industries or business related to primary products of agriculture.
2. Cottage and micro industries,
3. Personal service business (hair cutting, tailoring, driving etc.),
4. Industries manufacturing arms, ammunition, bullets and shell, gunpowder or explosives, and nuclear, biological and chemical (N.B.C.) weapons; industries producing atomic energy and radio-active materials,
5. Real estate business (excluding construction industries), retail business, internal courier service, local catering service, moneychanger, remittance service,
6. Travel agency, guide involved in tourism, trekking and mountaineering guide, rural tourism including home stay,
7. Business of mass communication media (newspaper, radio, television and online news) and motion picture of national language
8. Management, account, engineering, legal consultancy service and language training, music training, computer training, and
9. Consultancy services having foreign investment of more than fifty-one percent.
10. Ride Sharing having foreign investment of more than Seventy percent*.