Kathmandu, Oct. 8
Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal Prachanda pointed out to
the need of innovative financial mechanisms and modalities for Nepal's
infrastructure development to address the current need of rapid socio-economic
development.
"Nepal needs a large amount of financial cooperation
for infrastructure development and it can't be achieved with the traditional
tools of support. So, we need to work on attracting investment through the
mechanism like the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) framework along with various
bilateral and multilateral mechanisms," he said at a conference on 'A
decade of BRI: Deepening trade, investment, connectivity and academic
relations'.
The event was organised by Nepal-China Friendship Forum in
the Capital on Sunday.
Stating that Nepal and China both want to make Nepal a
land-linked nation, Prime Minister Prachanda said that the Government of Nepal
is clear about expediting cooperation through the BRI.
According to him, Nepal and China needs to work on
converting the economic and other potentials into opportunity for both them.
"Nepal China relation is crucial for the establishment of peace in this
region as well," said PM Prachanda.
He took the opportunity to mention that 13 agreements and
understandings signed during his recent visit to China will strengthen economic
and people-level relations ties between the two countries. It will help in
increasing Chinese investment and technology transfer in Nepal, especially in
the areas of national priority and comparative advantage, according to PM
Prachanda.
He expressed his commitment to facilitate and protect
Chinese investment in Nepal, and said that the leadership is aware of the
long-term benefits and potentials of the BRI for Nepal and its people.
"I have asked Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi about
accepting the tri-partite cooperation (among China, India and Nepal) proposal
put forth by Nepal. I asked him that wasn't it the responsibility of economic
giant like India to support economically vulnerable country like Nepal,"
said Prime Minister Prachanda.
Professor of the Kathmandu School
of Law, Dr. Yubraj Sangroula, said that while deepening relations with China,
Nepal must not forget to include India or collaborate with the latter to
maximise the benefits. Government of Nepal should try to persuade India to form
a tri-partite collaboration to distribute benefits to all, he said.
According to him, some politicians and experts
misinterpreted the tri-partite cooperation proposed by Nepal which is
unfortunate. Likewise, Chinese debt trap has also been an issue of propaganda
in Nepal which only damaged the bilateral relations as well as development
cooperation between the two neighbours.
"We must not forget that only a prosperous Nepal can
maintain balanced relations between India and China," said Dr. Sangroula.
The two countries have millennia-old rich cultural and
people to people relations while formal connectivity was established about
1,600 years ago. Ancient Silk Road system also helped Nepal to import goods as
well as architecture and culture, he said.
Stating that the technology to develop paper was imported to
Nepal from China and the former became the second country to produce paper in
Asia, Dr. Sangroula said that the written history between the two countries
misses many milestones so we need to rewrite and reassess it including these
dimensions.
Chen Song, Ambassador of China to Nepal, said that China is
interested to enhance energy cooperation with Nepal.
"China is also willing to import more quality
agricultural products from Nepal, and it does not attach any political strings
in its cooperation with Nepal," he said.
Ambassador Chen stressed on high-quality BRI cooperation so
that both the countries could benefit from it.
According to him, the two countries should enhance cooperation
in infrastructure, telecommunication and electricity while tourism, education
and medicine could be the other areas of cooperation.
Speaking on the occasion, Dr. Achyut Wagle, Professor and
Registrar of the Kathmandu University, stated that Nepal should work to make it
an international hub of education for Chinese students.
"China is currently looking outwards to expand its
education and knowledge globally. Nepal can be a partner in it. Initiative
should be taken for cooperation between the educational institutions of Nepal
and China and joint research initiatives," he said.
Currently, 8,000-11,000 Nepali students are going to China
every year for higher studies.
Published in The Rising Nepal on 9 October 2023.
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