New channels open Nepal to opportunities

Collaboration between China and Nepal, especially under the Belt and Road Initiative, will bring prosperity and stability in South Asia, according to the top Nepalese diplomat in Beijing.

"The only choice for us is to work together if we want to make the region stable and prosperous," said Leela Mani Paudyal, Nepal's ambassador to China.

He said China's growing influence in the global arena and its commitment to build a community of a shared future benefits the whole world. "Because development must be based on win-win cooperation and should be inclusive, as stipulated in the Belt and Road Initiative."

The plan aims to provide connectivity in policies, infrastructure, trade, financing and people-to-people exchange among Asian, European and African countries.

Li Li, a deputy director at the China Institutes of Contemporary International Relations, said the economies of Nepal's neighbors - China and India - are both rapidly growing, which brings opportunities as well as challenges to the Himalayan country with a population of more than 28 million.

On Nov 26, Nepal's Finance Ministry unveiled three potential infrastructure projects which will be implemented under the initiative.

They include a cross-border railway project connecting China's border town of Kerung with Nepal's capital Kathmandu, electricity transmission line connecting Kerung with Nepal's Galchhi in Dhading district, and the Sunsari-Marin Diversion Irrigation Project.

Cheng Xizhong, director of Chinese Association for South Asian Studies, said that there is great potential in China and Nepal cooperation.

Strengthening infrastructure construction means opening up the channel from China to South Asia, which will not only benefit Nepal and South Asia, and even the global economy.

"Nepal is a gateway between China and South Asia," Cheng said, "China-Nepal relations is vital in all terms."

The ambassador said that the friendship between China and Nepal has a long history.

Nepal looks forward to working with China in the areas of infrastructure, tourism, power, communication, transboundary crime control and people-to-people exchanges through the initiative, he said.

Paudyal mentioned four specific areas that China and Nepal can work together in immediate future, which are hydropower, tourism, agriculture modernization and processing of herbs and medicine plants.

"Nepal is rich in natural resource endowment but untapped fully for the benefit of its people and region," he said.

The unique characteristics in topography, vegetation and culture not only have made Nepal potential to generates green energy, the hydropower but also become natural choice for growing high value herbs and medicine plants, he said, adding that unique landscape and diverse culture also makes Nepal rich in tourism resource.

panmengqi@chinadaily.com.cn

(China Daily 12/01/2017 page11)