Chinese firms interested in runing Nepal's SOE

An official of the Nepal's Ministry of Industry said on Sunday that two Chinese companies have shown interests to take over one of the country's state-owned enterprise which is defunct at present.

The Chenhui Minerals Limited and South China Mining Energy Company from China had applied to operate the Nepal Metal Company Limited (NMCL) in the first week of October this year by taking all shares.

"These companies however had not proposed to own the NMCL jointly," Chitrangat Baral, an official of the ministry, told Xinhua.

These Chinese companies have been in regular contact with the ministry, making queries about the Nepal government's decision if the state-owned enterprise be sold or not.

"The final decision in this regard however will be made on coming Thursday this week," Baral added.

Established in 1976, the NMCL engages in mining, beneficiation and marketing of zinc-lead ores and concentrates.

The company based in Dhading district near Nepal's capital Kathmandu however has never gone into full-fledged operation since its establishment because of the decade-long Maoist insurgency in Nepal.

"It's better to hand over the closed company to these interested Chinese firms than letting the expensive machines to rust and we are positive about it," NMCL Board Chairman Shankar Aryal told Xinhua, adding that the board has studied the detailed proposal.

The government owns a 71 percent stake in NMCL while the Khetan Group of Nepal holds a 13 percent share, with the Hyderabad Industry Limited of India and KK Bamford Company of Hong Kong each taking 6 percent of the company's shares.

The company has a total capital of around 180 million Nepalese rupees (about 189,473 US dollars).

The Ministry of Industry has said the investors need to input the same amount of capital for bringing the company back to operation.