IBN for materializing West Seti agreement

Kathmandu March 11- The Investment Board of Nepal (IBN) has called on the concerned authorities, including the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO), to materialise a Joint Venture (JV) agreement between the Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA) and China’s CWE Investment Corporation for developing the 750MW West Seti Hydropower Project during Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli’s visit to China beginning March 20.

The IBN on Sunday forwarded a letter to the PMO, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MoFA), the Ministry of Energy (MoE) and the NEA, asking if the JV agreement is possible during PM Oli’s China visit.

Despite getting the draft JV agreement some nine months ago from the CWE, the IBN is struggling to get the deal done. As per a memorandum of understanding (MoU) signed between the IBN and the Chinese company in August 2012, the latter will hold a 75 percent stake in the joint-venture company, with the NEA holding rest of the stakes. Even after almost four years of signing the MoU, the JV agreement for West Seti is still to materialise, primarily due to reservations from the NEA side. NEA officials said they have gone through the draft they have received from China’s CWE and that they have made some amendments to it. The amended draft is now in the final stage, according to the NEA.