Four projects to be funded by the China International Development Cooperation Agency (CIDCA) are in the final stage of negotiation, officials say. Chairman of the Chinese external aid agency, Luo Zhaohui, is in Kathmandu as the head of the country’s delegation to the third Nepal Investment Summit.

According to officials, there is a high possibility of a letter of exchange being signed within days. During the investment summit, the government and the private sector of China will also sign some projects that are in an advanced phase of negotiation, said officials from multiple ministries in Kathmandu.

Those projects in the final round of negotiations are expansion of the second phase of Kathmandu Ring Road from Kalanki to Maharjgunj, the Araniko Highway upgrade, a Nepal-China cross-border transmission line and the Hilsa-Simikot road.

“The Chinese side has communicated to us that they have already allocated the budget for expediting these projects,” Bishnu Pukar Shrestha, the Nepali Ambassador to China, who is currently in Kathmandu, told the Post. The CIDCA will fund and execute these projects, he added. However, the Chinese side is yet to disclose the budget to be spent on these projects.

On Friday, two agreements were signed and there will soon be an agreement on construction of these four projects, said Shrestha. On Friday, too, officials from Nepal and China discussed paperwork for the four projects and continued with their negotiation so that an agreement can be signed during the investment summit scheduled to take place on Sunday and Monday, a finance ministry official said.

“We signed some agreements and meeting minutes today and we have received the text for the letter of exchange of some important projects including Kathmandu Ring Road,” Finance Minister Barsha Man Pun said after the signing of the two agreements. In order to meet some legal obligations, their finalisation is going to take some time, Pun added.

“Once we complete the legal process, the projects will be signed and hopefully put into speedy execution,” said Pun. Given the Chinese record of timely project completion elsewhere, the minister expects a similar pace of work in Nepal too.

He also raised the issue of accessing the money announced during the Nepal visit of Chinese president Xi Jinping. “During the state visit of the Chinese president in 2019, there was an announcement of 3.5 billion RMB [approximately Rs60 billion] by the Chinese side but we could not use that assistance. We are committed to executing projects agreed during the visit of the prime minister last year and want to learn from China’s development experience,” said Pun.

Acknowledging delays in some-China funded projects in Nepal, the finance minister said the approved projects will be expedited soon.

A government secretary called for a productive use of Chinese aid, rather than seeking the neighbour’s help in minor projects that Kathmandu can execute on its own.

“If the Nepal government decided to expand the Ring Road with its own funds, it would have been built years ago. The Chinese side has not disclosed the budget or the detailed project report of the second-phase Ring Road expansion”, said the secretary.

The secretary also pointed to repeated signing of memoranda of understanding. “These four projects have been agreed on and agreements signed several times in the past.”

Two senior officials at the Ministry of Physical Infrastructure and Ministry of Foreign Affairs said they have no idea how negotiations were going on with the Chinese side. Only the finance ministry is engaged in the process, the senior officials said.

During the China visit of Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal in September last year, Beijing had committed support for the establishment of a bone marrow transplant facility at the BP Koirala Memorial Cancer Hospital, Chitwan. “China is ready to provide more support and cooperation with Nepal in the health sector,” the joint statement issued then read.

“This includes the establishment of bone marrow transplant services at the BP Koirala Memorial Cancer Hospital. China will provide support for the construction of the physical structure, impart training to doctors and the Nepali technical manpower,” said a new statement issued after the signing of the agreement at the Ministry of Finance between Health Secretary Dr Roshan Pokhrel and CIDCA Chairman Luo on Friday.

Another new agreement is on imparting training for the Nepali human resources in various fields signed between the finance secretary and Lou. Beijing has assigned CIDCA to execute various projects under the agency established in 2018 with the mandate to formulate strategic guidelines, plans and policies for foreign aid, coordinate and offer advice on major foreign aid issues, advance the country's reforms in matters involving foreign aid, and identify major programmes and supervise and evaluate their implementation.

The Chinese people and the government want to show firm solidarity with Nepal’s coalition government, Luo said. “My purpose is to speed up bilateral project cooperation.”

He praised Nepal as a great country. “You have overcome the difficulties [arising] from the Covid pandemic, and the outside economic situation was not friendly. Now you are moving towards political stability, and economic recovery, especially in the tourism sector,” said Luo.

There are a lot of potential areas where the two countries can work together, said Luo. In his meeting with Prime Minister Dahal on Friday morning, he recalled the 2019 visit of Chinese President Xi Jinping to Kathmandu and the consensus then reached to build trans-Himalayan rail connectivity.

Last year Prime Minister Dahal, during his official visit to China, reached consensus with Beijing on a number of issues, said the head of China’s external aid agency. Luo attached priority to implementing the projects agreed between the two countries’ top leaders.

In his meeting with Dahal, Luo is said to have discussed past agreements. The two agreed to expedite projects that China had committed to earlier, according to a statement issued by the prime minister’s private secretariat.

“More trading points between Nepal and China have been opened, providing relief to the people of the border areas,” the prime minister said. “I have also sensed an excitement among Chinese investors when it comes to investing in Nepal.”

Lou told the prime minister that Chinese investors want to invest in Nepal’s infrastructure, transmission lines, and feasibility study of the Tokha-Chhahare tunnel project, among others.