Nepal-China Cooperation

NEPAL and China have reaffirmed their commitment to further expand and consolidate bilateral economic relation and cooperation through various measures. In this connection, the fifth meeting of Nepal—China Non-Governmental Cooperation Forum was held in Kathmandu the other day, in which delegates from both the countries exchanged views on issues relating to increasing volume of bilateral trade, promoting joint investment and narrowing Nepal’s trade deficit with China. Nepal and China are close neighbours and good friends throughout the history. China has been a true partner of Nepal’s development efforts and has supported Nepal in building physical infrastructures and helped to develop other social and economic sectors. These relations have been growing every year. Both the countries now have been working closely to further strengthen and expand these economic and trade relations at both official and people’s level for the common interest of the two close neighbours. With the objective of promoting trade and economic cooperation at non-governmental level, the bilateral non-governmental cooperation forum was formed a few years ago. Since then there have been positive developments and progress in the field of trade and investment. There are lots of potentials for Nepal-China trade and joint investment. Several Chinese companies have already started joint venture in Nepal and some more are on the pipeline. Only recently, China added Nepal to the list of tourist destinations for the Chinese people. An agreement between Nepal and China to promote bilateral tourism has recently been signed. Similarly, the fifth meeting of Nepal-China Non-Governmental Cooperation Forum has taken a number of decisions to further promote economic cooperation between the two nations. The decision, among others, includes formulation of a joint study groups with the mandate to identify new areas of cooperation, investment, promote bilateral trade and deal with the problems that might crop up in the field of bilateral trade in the future. The study groups have also been authorised to develop a package programme for attracting Chinese tourists to Nepal and expand tourist-related services. These are, no doubt, positive and forward-looking initiatives for the promotion of bilateral trade and economic cooperation between Nepal and China. Nepal is seeking foreign investment and trying to attract more tourists in order to boost its economy. At the same time, Nepal’s huge trade deficit with China also needs to be narrowed. Thus, these initiatives, without any shade of doubt, would go a long way in developing and consolidating Nepal-China relations and cooperation in the future.

Great Success

THE campaign against polio has yielded definite results over the past five years. Four polio cases had been detected in 2000 but no such cases have been found so far this year. This clearly indicates that Nepal, one of the few Asian countries that are still fighting the disease, is geared towards the total eradication of the malady. It was the need of the country to see that its children were not left disabled by the disease that anti-polio campaign was launched, following the call of the WHO for a world free of polio. The efforts on the part of the Health Ministry have been encouraging so much so that it has resulted in an almost total eradication of the once virulent disease. The role of the media is particularly significant as it has been carrying out the task of raising widespread awareness among the citizens about the risks their children could pose if they failed to get them immunised. Under this year’s immunisation drive, some four million children under the age of five were administered the polio drops the other day. The government had mobilised about 100,000 people, including health workers and volunteers for the vaccination drive. The next immunisation programme is scheduled for 19 January 2002. Though there have not been any case of polio in the past eleven months as reported by the Ministry, we still need to push ahead with the immunisation drive. The people’s enthusiasm to bring their children for anti-polio drops shows that there is a rising awareness among them that polio can be prevented through immunisation. This has, on the other hand, facilitated the National Vaccination Day as has been observed.

Though there have not been any new cases in Nepal, it still needs to take the precautionary measures to avoid the possibility of the malady entering the country any time from across the open border. Given the fact that over a hundred polio cases were discovered in the Uttar Pradesh state of India, we need to be particularly careful. It is indeed a heartening news that the health authorities in Nepal have also included mopping up in districts vulnerable to polio penetration. The mopping up needs to be carried out with due earnestness in order to make the next immunisation programme also a great success.