Nepal, China ink 9 deals

KATHMANDU, MARCH 27 : Nepal and China have signed nine agreements and documents pertaining to the mutual cooperation in various areas.

Nepali and Chinese foreign ministers- Narayan Khadka and Wang Yi- inked these papers on behalf of their respective countries in a function held in the capital on Saturday (March 26).  Leading his delegation team, Wang arived in Kathmandu on Friday on for a three-day visit.

Under the economic and technical cooperation, Nepal agreed to spend the grant worth over Rs 56 billion announced by Chinese President  Xi Jinping in 2019 on education and projects related to livelihoods.

Similarly, the conduct of feasibility study of the China-Nepal power grid interconnections and Nepal-China cross-border project, duty-free treatment for 98 percent of imported goods in China and assurance of safety and health conditions of haylage export from Nepal to China were other agreed areas of the cooperation.  Both countries also approved the minutes of the seventh virtual meeting held in January this year on the railway sector.

Handing over the certificate of Araniko Highway Maintenance Project (Phase III) by China to Nepal was also agreed by them. Besides, China committed to send a medical team and also donate an additional 4 million Sinovac doses to Nepal for inoculation against Covid-19.

During the function, the issues related to the problem faced by Nepali students to continue their study in China due to the strict Chinese Covid-19 restrictions and reviving the mechanism for joint-boundary inspection (that has been halted since 2006) were also discussed.

Nevertheless, the two sides did not seal any deal regarding the projects  under the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI).  It was introduced in 2013 by China aiming to build a trade and infrastructure network connecting Asia with Europe and Africa along the ancient trade routes.

Though Nepal signed up the BRI Framework Agreement in 2017, not a single project has so far taken off owing to several constraints including finalisation of the text of the project implementation agreement.