Nepal Foreign Affair (KATHMANDU, 30 July 2021) – Chinese Ambassador for Nepal, Hou Yanqi, today called on Finance Minister Janardan Sharma and Minister for Energy, Water Resources and Irrigation, Pampha Bhusal in their office.
During the meeting held at his office in Singha Durbar, the Finance Minister thanked the Government of China for its assistance to Nepal during the COVID-19 pandemic and in the post-earthquake reconstruction drive. On the occasion, the Minister expressed his hope that Nepal would continue to get support and cooperation from China in the future, too.
Stating that COVID-19 vaccine to the Nepali citizen was the topmost priority of the hour of the government, the Minister had thanked China for 1.8 million doses of vaccine that it provided to Nepal in assistance. “Nepal has proceeded towards the procurement of additional doses of vaccine from China,” he said, hoping to get support and facilitation from the ambassador towards that end. He also promised to take initiation to sort out probable problems in the implementation of China-funded projects in Nepal after monitoring and to complete the projects on time.
He assured that that the government would seriously carry out its role required for the under-construction road, hydropower and airport projects which have the investment from China. During the meeting, the Chinese Ambassador congratulated Sharma for his appointment on the post and said China’s policy and perception towards Nepal would remain the same no matter who was in the government, the Secretariat of the Finance Minister said in a press note.
Stating that the people of China and communist parties there and the Nepali people and political parties here had good relationship, Ambassador Hou said China was with Nepal in the fight against COVID-19 pandemic. As she said, China had earlier provided 1.8 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines to Nepal in grant and it would be soon receiving additional 1.6 million doses. Likewise, China has assisted different 25 post-quake projects in Nepal and some percentage of the work of these has been completed, according to the Ambassador “The Durbar High-School Project has been completed, the works on the rebuilding of Basantapur-based Nine-Storey Palace’ are about to complete and works of other remaining projects are expected to be over soon.”
Chinese Ambassador Yanqi, also paid a courtesy call on Minister for Energy, Water Resources and Irrigation, Pampha Bhusal, today. During the meeting held at the Ministry, they discussed the matters of bilateral interest and welfare.
On the occasion, Minister Bhusal said initiatives would be taken to resolve the problems seen in construction of China-funded hydropower projects and transmission line at consensus. She also stressed the need of studying the proposal sent by Nepal on the issue of ‘Belt and Road Initiative’ (BRI) and bring it into implementation.
Saying Nepali students pursuing their higher edsucation in China are compelled to return to Nepal due to COVID-19, she made a special request to the Chinese Ambassador to make arrangement for them to complete their studies. The Energy Minister thanked the Chinese government for providing vaccine against COVID-19 to Nepal.
Expressing gratitude towards the support provided by China in Nepal’s development, she also expressed belief that the relations between the two countries would be further strengthened in the days to come. On the occasion, Chinese Ambassador Hou stressed the need of moving ahead through collaboration between the two countries, adding Nepal has immense potentialities in energy as energy is an important matter for development. Saying Chinese companies have achieved good experience in hydropower sector, she shared that the Chinese companies are willing to invest in Nepal. The Chinese Ambassador said that Chinese Power Construction Companies are working in different projects of Nepal including Upper Tamakoshi, Trishuli 3 ‘A’ and laid emphasis on the need of moving ahead resolving problems seen on these projects.