久久亚洲国产成人影院-久久亚洲国产的中文-久久亚洲国产高清-久久亚洲国产精品-亚洲图片偷拍自拍-亚洲图色视频

US EUROPE AFRICA ASIA 中文
Business / Economy

Nepal emerges as fresh destination for investment

(Agencies) Updated: 2014-12-22 08:02

Nepal emerges as fresh destination for investment

Businesspeople from Nepal enjoy a cultural show with their Chinese counterparts in Kunming, capital of Yunnan province, during a trade fair in June this year. [Provided to China Daily]

In the dusty outskirts of Kathmandu, south of the Himalayan mountain range in Nepal that holds the world's highest peaks, Chinese engineers in orange hard hats oversee construction of the country's first eight-lane highway.

The $45 million upgrade of a road circling the Nepalese capital is one of dozens of projects helping China challenge India's dominance in a country that is sandwiched between them. Until recently, the Himalayas served as a natural barrier that prompted Nepal to trade more across its flat border with India.

"China is growing in importance," Ram Sharan Mahat, Nepal's Finance Minister, said in a recent interview in Kathmandu. "Because of new trade horizons and the cheap pricing of Chinese goods, China's trade vis-a-vis Nepal is growing."

China this year overtook India as Nepal's biggest foreign investor, funding power plants, noodle factories and meat-processing units in one of the world's poorest countries. Trade is also booming: Nepal's commerce with China has outpaced that with India by 17 times since 2006, eroding the influence of New Delhi's leaders.

Signs of China's growing presence are visible throughout Kathmandu, including the flags that wave about the construction site, Mandarin announcements at the international airport and a Chinese-language book shop that popped up in the capital last month. Local markets are flooded with China-made goods such as Hindu idols once sourced from India.

"China looks to Nepal as a gateway to South Asia," Akshay Mathur, head of research at Mumbai-based Gateway House, says. "It's part of a broader strategy to extend its sphere of influence."

China is already seeking a land route through ally Pakistan to the Arabian Sea as President Xi Jinping pledges $40 billion in investments along the Silk Road trading route. China in August completed a railway link near the Nepal border, the official Xinhua News Agency reported, which could divert Chinese goods from India's Kolkata port.

"India and Indian businesses had been complacent," Mathur says, in reference to China's moves in Nepal. "They'll have to sit up and take notice."

India accounted for 53 percent of Nepal's trade last year, down from 60 percent in 2006, when a Maoist insurgency ended. China's share of Nepal's commerce has risen to 31 percent from 3 percent in that time, data compiled by Bloomberg show.

China's investment pledges worth 7.3 billion Nepali rupees ($73 million) outstripped India's 6.5 billion Nepali rupees for the first time in the year through July. They are projected to do so again this year, according to data from Nepal's Department of Industry.

China's competition with India is a boon for Nepal, whose remittances-dependent economy is smaller than all 50 US states. Its 28 million people have the lowest spending power of any Asian country apart from Afghanistan, International Monetary Fund statistics show.

"We're in between the two fastest-growing major economies in the world," Yuba Raj Khatiwada, Nepal's central bank governor, said in a Dec 3 interview at his Kathmandu office. "No other country has such an opportunity, a market of billions of middle-class populations on both borders."

Nepal is boosting yuan holdings to 15 percent of foreign-exchange reserves, equivalent to its stocks of the Indian rupee, Khatiwada says. While the Nepalese currency's peg to the rupee is working for now, it might be reevaluated if India's economy sees high volatility in the future, he says.

Even though China has made inroads, India is still poised to gain as Nepal expands. An India-Nepal power trading pact signed in August could be a "turning point" in solving South Asia's energy woes, Johannes Zutt, the World Bank's country director for Nepal, says.

Some 6,000 rivers fed by Himalayan glaciers could be harnessed for more than 80 gigawatts of capacity, according to Nepal's Investment Board, enough to power a third of India. It has tapped less than 1 percent of that potential while suffering blackouts for as many as 16 hours a day.

Exporting electricity to India rather than China is easier because its rivers flow south off the Himalayas toward India's most populous states, while China's biggest cities and industries are far to the east.

 

 

Hot Topics

Editor's Picks
...
主站蜘蛛池模板: 亚洲精品综合 | 久久99久久精品视频 | 亚洲欧美高清视频 | 亚洲精品视频久久 | 国产精品二区页在线播放 | 亚洲一区在线观看视频 | 手机看片1024国产基地 | 久草青青 | 国内精品久久久久久久aa护士 | 国产精品久久九九 | 999久久久精品视频在线观看 | 一级毛片大全 | 人妖欧美一区二区三区四区 | 亚洲第一网站免费视频 | 国产在线免 | 久久久久亚洲精品中文字幕 | 手机看片福利永久 | 色涩亚洲| 国产欧美日韩精品高清二区综合区 | 那种视频在线观看 | 国产第九页 | 久久久久久久免费 | 国产精品推荐 | 波多野结衣在线免费视频 | 99久久精品免费看国产免费软件 | 91免费网站在线看入口黄 | 日韩亚洲欧美在线 | 国产成人mv在线观看入口视频 | 页面升级亚洲 | 日本美女视频韩国视频网站免费 | 97在线视频免费 | 香蕉一区二区三区观 | 国产一区二区三区久久 | 色偷偷在线刺激免费视频 | 久色视频在线观看 | 国产精品欧美一区二区在线看 | 久久国产网 | 久草在线资源视频 | 国产一级在线观看 | 国产人做人爱视频精品 | 一区二区三区四区国产精品 |