Recently, State Councillor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi received Nepalese Foreign Minister Khadga in Qingdao, Shandong Province, for a visit to China. This was the first visit to China by a Nepalese Foreign Minister since the establishment of the Deuba government in July last year. During Khadga's visit to China, the two sides reached an important consensus on cooperation.
China announced that it would grant zero-tariff treatment to 98 % of Nepalese products and welcomed the expansion of Nepalese exports of tea, Chinese herbal medicine and agricultural and livestock products to China. Wang Yi said he supports the Nigerian side to make good use of this policy dividend and expand its exports to China. At present, China-Nepal economic and trade cooperation is making steady progress. 2021, China-Nepal trade volume reached 1.98 billion U.S. dollars, an increase of 67 percent year-on-year; Chinese enterprises have invested 52.01 million U.S. dollars in non-financial direct investment in Nepal; Chinese enterprises have signed 1.28 billion U.S. dollars in new construction contracts in Nepal and completed a turnover of 400 million U.S. dollars. Despite the large differences in economic scale, the two countries have strong complementarities in bilateral trade and economy, and there is also great room for development.
The two sides will enhance humanistic exchanges and operate more direct flights to facilitate people-to-people exchanges. According to Nepali media, Chinese tourists are one of the main sources of foreign visitors to Nepal, with a total of 3,670 Chinese tourists entering the country since 2022. According to the Nepal Tourism Board, a total of 1,593 Chinese tourists arrived in Nepal via shipping in July, the highest number of tourist arrivals since the outbreak of COVID-19. This follows the suspension of direct flights between China and Nepal.
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