Kathmandu, November 13
It has been exactly seven months since Nepal and China signed an agreement to involve Nepal in Chinese President Xi Jinping’s flagship One Belt One Road project. However, the government has not made any progress towards ensuring Nepal’s involvement in the ambitious project.
Nepal is yet to prepare a single proposal to forward to China for the project.
“We have told all ministries to prepare concrete proposals to send to Beijing; but we have not received any yet. It seems they are not serious,” says an official of the International Economic Cooperation Coordination Division at the Ministry of Finance.
Around 45 days have already been passed since the Ministry made the request to other ministries. The official says no proposal has been prepared so far as the ministries do not have staff capable enough to draft such documents for big projects.
He says the ministries generally do not require those people as big donors including Asian Development Banks and World Bank prepare proposals on own.
“It means we are just talking. Nothing has been done,” former Nepali Ambassador to China Mahesh Masket says, “We are just dreaming.”
Some traders and industrialists, however, claim the private sector has made some efforts to ensure that Nepal gets maximum benefits from the project.
Bhashkar Raj Rajkarnikar, who heads the Nepal chapter of OBOR International Trading Platform, says a clean industrial park is being established in Damak of Jhapa district as a part of the OBOR. He says the detailed project report is being prepared for the park.
The cost for the project is yet to be finalised, the industrialist says, adding, China will cover the 90 per cent of total cost whereas Nepali traders and locals will invest 10 per cent.
