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Prime Minister Oli Returns Home From China
Prime Minister Oli Returns Home From China
KTM Metro Reporter
June 25, 2018
Kathmandu: Prime Minister KP Oli triumphantly returned home from the China visit on June 24, 2018. Speaking to the reporters at the international airport in Kathmandu, Prime Minister Oli said that his visit to China was tremendously successful. He might be right.
His first visit to China in 2016 was also very successful in terms of the number of agreements and the memorandum of understandings signed off. However, his successors not only did not follow up the accomplishments of Prime Minister Oli but also trashed all the agreements and MOUs, and even terminated the contract on constructing the Budhigandaki Hydropower project of 1,200 MW awarded to the Chinese company.
This time, Prime Minister Oli is much more powerful than he was in 2016; he might not need to quit the office so soon as he did in the past, and he would have every opportunity of enforcing the agreements and MOUs Nepal and China have reached.
China would conduct the feasibilities studies on constructing railroads from Rasuwagadhi-Keryung to Kathmandu, and on the Trans-Himalayan (Rasuwagadhi-Galchhi-Ratmate) 400 KV transmission line. Then, Nepal and China have to make a deal on constructing the railroads and the transmission line, and then decided who would foot the bills. Probably, both Nepal and China might need to do so.
China is not in a mood of constructing those huge projects gratis because they involved a large sum of money. So, China wants Nepal to participate financially in building those projects. Nepal needs to make a deal with China on financing those projects appropriately.
While dealing with China, Nepal needs to keep in mind that those railroads and the transmission line are not only of the Nepalese interest but also of Chinese, too, as those railroads and the transmission line would directly connect Kathmandu with Lhasa of Tibet and other regions of China, and would contribute to the fast economic development of those regions. So, Chinese leaders want to link the Kathmandu railroads with Indian border towns so that China could have a direct access to the Indian market and vice versa. All three nations in question could benefit form these railroads.
One of the most important agreements Prime Minister Oli has reached with the Chinese leaders is the use of Chinese highways. In case of the southern neighbor imposing any sorts of blockade, as did in the past Nepal could use the Chinese highways for transporting the daily need goods. That is when an emergency arises. However, the use of the Chinese highways would help to move Nepalese goods to China and the Chinese goods to Nepal smoothly not to mention the goods exported from Nepal to the third countries and imported from the third countries to Nepal.
Chinese banks would opened up their branches in Nepal, and contribute to the fast economic development of Nepal. China might use their own banks to finance the Chinese projects in Nepal, even might go down to India because they might have an easy access to India from Nepal.
China might opened up a few more border entry points including Tatopani-Khasa for the trade and transit between China and Nepal. However, China might take some time before doing so. They are not in a hurry to open up everything. They have to see everything from the various aspects of life so that they might not need to close them down again soon.
What Prime Minister Oli really missed in China is the purchase and transport of petroleum products. Maybe, Chinese leaders are aware of the high const of transporting petroleum products from Chinese seaports to Nepal. So, they must have left those products to India to supply.
Nepal needs to reduce the hydrocarbon fuels as much as possible to mitigate the pollution and the balance of trade. The import of petroleum products has been consuming a huge chunk of the Nepalese foreign currencies earned from other businesses. So, Nepal needs to make use of the hydropower at maxim to offset the trade deficits Nepal has with both China and India.
