KATHMANDU, June 28 (Xinhua)–The Nepali government has formed two separate mechanisms to accelerate the development of projects under the framework of the China-proposed Belt and Road Initiative, a senior government official told Xinhua on Tuesday.
A recent Cabinet meeting presided over by Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba made the decision to form such mechanisms to identify and accelerate the cooperation projects between Nepal and China to be developed under the Belt and Road Initiative, Foreign Secretary of Nepal Shanker Das Bairagi told Xinhua.
The two panels are composed of senior government officials from different government ministries including foreign affairs, finance, energy, industry, commerce, among others.
“The Nepali government is committed to pushing forward Nepal-China cooperation under the framework of Belt and Road Initiative,” Bairagi said.
“Nepal fully supports the Belt and Road Initiative and will take an active part in building the China-proposed initiative,” the foreign secretary told Xinhua, adding his country is willing to earnestly implement the consensus reached between leaders of the two countries in the past.
The two countries had pledged to further deepen their mutually beneficial cooperation in all fields under the framework of the Belt and Road Initiative during the 11th round of diplomatic consultation held in Kathmandu last week.
During the diplomatic consultation, the two sides explored the potential in cooperation in the fields including high-level exchanges, trade and investment, communication and connectivity, energy and post-disaster reconstruction.
Nepal and China signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on bilateral cooperation under the framework of the Belt and Road Initiative on May 12.
The Belt and Road Initiative, proposed by China in 2013, aims at building a trade and infrastructure network connecting Asia with Europe and Africa along the ancient trade routes.