KATHMANDU -- Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) pledges from Chinese investors to Nepal nearly doubled in the last fiscal year 2019-2020 that ended in mid-July despite the COVID-19 pandemic, data of Nepal's Department of Industry showed.

Chinese investors also pledged the highest amount of FDI to Nepal in the last fiscal year. It is the five years in a row that China topped the chart in committing the FDI to the country.

According to the department's statistics, Nepal received FDI pledges amounting to $220 million from China in the last fiscal 2019-2020 against pledges of $116 million in the previous fiscal year 2018-2019.

Binod Khadka, information officer at the department, has told Xinhua that Chinese investment pledges in some hydropower projects, which are more capital intensive industries, contributed to a surge in overall Chinese investment commitments. "Investment pledges could have been even higher provided if there was no coronavirus pandemic," he said.

Meanwhile, Chinese investment pledges in the last fiscal year was two third of the total investments committed by foreign investors, according to the industry department.