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Parliamentary sub-committee recommends govt scrap deal with Chinese investment-backed cement producer

Kathmandu, July 21

A sub-committee of Parliament’s Public Accounts Committee has recommended that the government cancel a deal it signed with a Nepali-Chinese cement factory under construction in Dhading.

The sub-committee led by NCP lawmaler Lekhraj Bhatta, says that public land rented to Huwaxin Cement Narayani Pvt Ltd for 50 years be vacated and officials involved in the deal be punished. The sub-committee, which presented its report before the PAC on Sunday, said that the cement manufacturer did not adhere to the terms and conditions of the agreement it signed with the Investment Board of Nepal, the government agency that facilitates big-ticket foreign investment in Nepal.

The lawmakers say that Huwaxin has not even conducted an initial environmental examination (IEE) of the proposed plant. This comes days after the proposed construction site was flooded following monsoon rains.

Huaxin Cement Narayani is the second Nepali-Chinese joint venture in domestic cement industry after Hongshi-Shivam Cement. The company is preparing to build its plant on 500 ropanies of land at Panikharka of Dhading. Huwaxin acquired a limestone mine from the Department of Mine and Geology through a global tender by paying Rs 600 million. Huaxin signed the project investment agreement (PIA) with IBN in the presence of Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli in Beijing in June 2018.

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