A total of 35,716 cottage and small industries have been registered in Gandaki province in the last six years. According to the statistics of the Ministry of Industry, Tourism, Forestry, and Environment, 32,994 businesses were registered during the same period. Small, cottage, and micro industries are registered at the tourism and industry offices in the districts.

A total of 35,716 domestic and small industries have been registered since the establishment of the provincial government, said the Chief of the Ministry’s Industry and Commerce Division, Ram Prasad Acharya. According to him, due to non-renewal on time, registration of some small and cottage industries has also been canceled. Some have been closed due to non-operation.

There is a legal provision to register industries, tourism, and industry offices with a fixed capital of less than 100 million rupees. Although the Local Government Operation Act 2017 provides that cottage, domestic, and small industries can be registered at the local level, registration for bank loans is increasing at the Tourism and Industry Office.

Industry can be registered at the local level or at the tourism and industry offices in all 11 districts of the province, said Acharya. Meanwhile, according to the policy of ‘Digital Gandaki’, digital records of 108,253 industrial and commercial firms have been maintained. The Ministry has also prepared a detailed project report for the industrial zone to be built at Punditar in Kaski and Lokahakhola in Nawalpur.

Under the ‘One Local Level, One Industrial Village’ initiative, infrastructure is being developed at 29 local levels in Gandaki Province. For this, the provincial government has invested 85 million rupees in 23 industrial villages.