Owing to various reasons, the process of industrialization is very slow. There are very few large-scale industries and the population engaged in this activity is awfully meager, it being just about one percent of the total national population. Most of the existing industries are agro-based and forest-based. The leading industries include jute, sugar, cement, tobacco, paper, match, leather shoes, textiles, agricultural tools, distillery, brewery, biscuit, plywood, plastic and stainless steel utensils, brick and tiles and so on. Spatially, these industrial enterprises are very unevenly distributed. About 80% of the industrial units are concentrated in the tarai region, particularly in the central and eastern sections. In the hilly zone, the Kathmandu Valley is the most important area and diverse types of industries. With the view of developing small and medium scale industries based on locally available raw materials, several industrial estates too have now been established in various centres of the country. Then there exist varied traditional types of cottage industries scattered over all parts of the country.