Finance Minister Dr. Prakash Sharan Mahat have held separate meetings with his Chinese and Indian counterparts on the sidelines of the G-20 Finance Minister level meeting in Gandhinagar, Gujarat, India.
Dr. Mahat held meetings with Finance Minister of China Liu Kun on Monday and with Finance Minister of India Nirmala Sitharaman on Tuesday.
During the meeting, Dr. Mahat and his Indian counterpart Sitharaman emphasized on completing the development projects being implemented with Nepal-India bilateral cooperation in time by resolving the problems encountered during their execution.
During a bilateral sideline meeting, they talked about the mutual cooperation and bilateral relations between the two countries.
Finance Minister Mahat mentioned that the implementation of the electricity export agreement concluded during the visit of the Prime Minister of Nepal to India would help in reducing the trade deficit as it would facilitate the export of 10,000 megawatts of hydropower in the next 10 years.
There was a consensus on working together to facilitate trade and investment between the two countries, the Ministry of Finance informed in a statement on Tuesday.
Meanwhile, Indian FM Sitharaman requested to speed up the work to implement the joint electronic payment mechanism according to the agreement between the Nepal Clearing House Limited (NCHL) and International Payments Limited of India.
FM Dr. Mahat said in response that he would work to establish a mechanism for its speedy implementation.
During the meeting, he also requested Sitharaman to increase investment in the information technology sector of Nepal as there is a good option for Indian investment since business potential and sufficient human resources are available in Nepal.
Thanking India for inviting Nepal to participate in the G20 Summit and providing an opportunity to raise the issues of the low-income countries in the forum, Dr. Mahat congratulated India for its dynamic and strong leadership of the group.
Likewise, during the meeting between Finance Minister Dr. Mahat and Chinese Finance Minister Liu on Monday, both ministers expressed that there is a historical and cooperative relationship between the two countries.
“Both the ministers had the same opinion that both sides are sensitive to each other’s interests and concerns,” said the press statement.
Minister Mahat expressed his gratitude for China’s development assistance to Nepal. During the visit of the President of China to Nepal in 2019, the Chinese President expressed his commitment to providing significant support to Nepal’s economic development. But it could not move forward in time due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Minister Mahat expressed his hope that the commitment would materialise soon.
On the occasion of the meeting, Minister Mahat expressed his hope that the road projects connecting the two countries through the important border crossings between Nepal and China could be an important area of cooperation and that the relevant bodies of both countries would do their homework and move forward soon.
He expressed hope that the Tokha-Chhahare tunnel would be implemented soon.
The Chinese Finance Minister expressed his desire to help in Nepal’s development and hoped that the cooperation projects would be implemented soon The Rising Nepal reports.
