National 8 (Spotlight Weekly)

Quest For Trade

Nepalese and Chinese business community discussed to identify areas for joint investment and trade

By A CORRESSPONDENT

Nepal has centuries old trade relations with its northern neighbor China, world’s fastest growing economy. But Nepalese business community have hardly realized it. Thanks to their indifference, Nepal has lost its traditional monopoly over the market in Tibetan Autonomous Region of China.

Although Nepal shares more than 1,400 kilometer long border with China with direct transport link to Lhasa, capital of TAR, there seems to be hardly any realization about this geographical reality and the opportunities it holds.

But even as the possibilities of boosting the bilateral trade remain untapped, the businessmen from two countries recently discussed the possibilities and opportunities they can explore for mutual benefit.

Organized by the Federation of Nepalese Chamber of Commerce and Industry (FNCCI), the two-day 7th meeting of Nepal China Non-governmental Cooperation Forum has decided to recommend new areas for the investment.

One of the major achievements of the meeting was that two Chinese Airlines have shown interest to start flights from Chengdu and Beijing. Despite declaring Nepal as outbound tourist destination for its citizen by China, the number of visiting Chinese tourist is very negligible.

“The annual inflow of tourists from China is expected to grow steadily. We have geared up our tourism industry to frame plans, programs and packages suiting the interest of Chinese visitors,” said the Minister for Industry, Commerce and Supplies Hari Bahadur Basnet, inaugurating the meeting. “There are immense possibilities to increase the trade between the two countries.”

Chinese businessmen, too, agree that there are possibilities to expand the trade relations between two countries and establishment of joint venture industries. “At present, the increasingly strengthened economic liberalization and regional cooperation give further highlight to the significant bilateral cooperation, and it is on such occasion that the 7th China-Nepal non-governmental Cooperation Forum is held,” said Xie Boyang, vice president, All China Federation of Industry and Commerce, addressing the meeting.

Established in 1996, the forum has paved the way to strengthen the trade relations between the two countries at non-governmental level. “China is a major trading partner of Nepal. About 12 percent of all Nepal’s import comes from China. But our export to China is as low as 1 percent of our total exports and the gap is growing. We are very happy to note here that there has been some progress,” said Binod Bahadur Shrestha, president of FNCCI.

Participated by more than 30 Chinese delegates and more than 50 Nepalese delegates, the two-day meeting, among others, highlighted possible new areas for cooperation.