Hon'ble Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Foreign Affairs Mr. Narayan Kaji Shrestha,
Your Excellency Foreign Secretary Mr. Durga Prasad Bhattarai,
Your Excellency Executive Director of Institute of Foreign Affairs Dr. Rishi Raj Adhikari and Deputy Executive Director Mr. Khush N. Shrestha,
Ladies and Gentlemen, dear friends,
Good morning! I’m very glad to attend this seminar on "High Growth Trajectory in China and India: Opportunities and Challenges to Harness Development Potentials in Nepal" held by Institute of Foreign Affairs of Nepal, and I hope all of you experts and scholars to take full advantage of this valuable opportunity to exchange your minds and offer advices and suggestions on mutual beneficial cooperation and common development among China, India and Nepal.
China and India are two emerging developing countries with the world's most dynamic and potential, which both have played important roles in the economic development of Asia and the world. In recent years, the contribution made by China and India to world economic growth has weighed more than 50%. Both China and India agreed that there would be broad space and enough filed for the two countries to cooperate. In recent years, under the joint efforts of the leaders and people from all walks of life of the two countries, the China-India strategic partnership has been continuously enriched and the bilateral cooperation in various fields has been continuously deepened. Last year, the bilateral trade volume between the two neighbors had reached 73.9 billion US dollars, accounting for 78% of the total trade between China and South Asia.
Nepal is a close neighbor of both China and India linked with mountains and rivers, which has a unique advantage in sharing the results of development of both neighbors. China hopes that Nepal can ride on the momentum and seize opportunities to accelerate the construction of infrastructure and other aspects, and become the transit station of trade, logistics and personnel between China and India or even the whole South Asian region as soon as possible, and we stand ready to provide support to you within our capacity. Meanwhile, the Chinese side would like to see the development of friendly relations and cooperation in various fields between Nepal and India, and also willing to work with the Indian side to jointly support Nepal in achieving its rapid development as early as possible. Recently, the Government of Nepal officially announced that this year would be Nepal investment year, and welcomed enterprises from various countries, including China and India to invest in Nepal. According to statistics, Nepal has attracted foreign direct Investment worth 10 billion rupees in last fiscal year, which is 10.43 percent higher than that of the fiscal year 2009/10. The Chinese side hopes that the Nepalese side could maintain this momentum, and will continue to encourage the competent Chinese enterprises to invest here.
For many years, the Chinese government has established friendly relations of different forms with South Asian countries on the basis of the Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence. Since China shares nearly 5700-kilometer-long border with South Asia, the bilateral economic and trade enjoy huge advantages including short distance, strong economic complementarities and huge market potential. According to statistics, the bilateral trade volume between China and South Asia, which has shown an over tenfold increase in the last decade, has jumped from 8.3 billion US dollars in 2002 to 97.4 billion US dollars in 2011. In recent years, the two sides have also made active efforts to jointly promote the construction of land, sea and air channels between China and South Asia in order to promote the development of bilateral trade and reduce the costs, which has laid a solid foundation for long-term development of bilateral economic and trade between the two sides. China will continue to expand imports from South Asian countries to resolve the bilateral trade imbalance, and to increase mutual investment, promote the diversification of trade and economic development, and further broaden the channels of cooperation in various fields such as finance, energy, environmental protection and high-tech.
In short, with the deepening of regional and global economic integration, the cooperation among China, India, Nepal and the entire South Asian region is now facing new opportunities. China will adhere to the policy of friendship and partnership with neighboring countries, and make great efforts to develop relations with SAARC and its member countries, and jointly promote our mutual beneficial relations to new heights.
Thank you!