In an address to a joint session of the Federal Parliament, President Ram Chandra Paudel has detailed the government’s ambitious policy and programme for the upcoming fiscal year, promising a “new stage of economic reform” designed to propel Nepal into a middle-income nation. Following a clear mandate in the recent general elections, the administration has pledged to focus on political stability, policy clarity, and transformative governance, with a target of achieving an average real economic growth rate of seven per cent over the next decade.
Central to this vision is a radical shift toward a “borderless and weightless” economy, prioritising information technology, hydroelectricity, and high-value green industrialisation. The government intends to declare the IT sector a strategic national industry, aiming to transform Nepal into a global tech hub by promoting the export of software, AI computation, and cloud services. To facilitate this, a “remote work policy” will be legalised, and an international payment gateway will be fully integrated to streamline foreign currency earnings and tax management.
Infrastructure development is set for a significant overhaul through the introduction of an “Investment Express” policy, which guarantees business and construction permits within thirty days. To attract substantial foreign capital, the government will offer a “Nepal Investment Visa” to high-level investors and restructure the energy sector to achieve a goal of 10,000 megawatts of electricity production within the next ten years. This will be supported by a “one-door system” to resolve long-standing legal and environmental bottlenecks in hydropower and forest management.+3
Social equity and the protection of vulnerable groups remain key pillars of the new agenda. The government has committed to providing free secondary education and establishing an integrated system to track and certify the skills of returning migrant workers through a “Digital Skill Passport”. Furthermore, a dedicated “Employment Promotion Decade” will be launched from the upcoming fiscal year to transition the workforce from forced foreign migration to sustainable local alternatives. In a direct response to recent financial crises, the President also announced the establishment of an Integrated Depositors Protection Fund to return the savings of those affected by troubled cooperatives.