One Belt, One Road- Impact on Nepal

Strategic Management
ASSIGNMENT 3

One Belt, One Road Agreement- Impact on Nepal

25th May, 2017

Submitted To:

Course Instructor: Mr. Pradeep Raj Pandey

Submitted By:-

Mohit Maheshwari

EMBA Fall 2015- Semester III (First Half)

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One Belt, One Road- Impact on Nepal

The Silk Road, Economic Belt and the 21st-century Maritime Silk Road, as well known as the
Belt and Road Initiative and The Belt and Road, is a development strategy proposed by Chinese
President Xi Jinping that focuses on connectivity and cooperation between Eurasian countries,
primarily the People's Republic of China, the land-based "Silk Road Economic Belt" and the
oceangoing "Maritime Silk Road". The strategy underlines China's push to become a bigger role
in global affairs, and the desire to coordinate manufacturing capacity with other provinces in
areas such as steel manufacturing.

(Wikipedia- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Belt_and_Road_Initiative)

The One Belt, One Road initiative is part of Chinas major policy framework to encourage
domestic development and foreign diplomacy. It requires to utilize the initiative to address
growing threats against China, achieve long-term economic benefits, and subjugate the American
maritime primacy that could bear on Chinas trade and energy lifelines in the hereafter.

One Belt, One Road, in other words, is a task that involves the building of a Silk Road,
Economic Belt and a 21st Century Maritime Silk Road. As pointed out by President Xi, the Belt
and Road runs through the Eurasia mainland, and connects it to the Asia-Pacific economic circle
to the east. It also meets the European economic circle to the westward.

There is no doubt that Nepal can reap benefits from the improved connectivity. The Belt and
Road Initiative of China is an attractive concept in Nepal, as it provides investment opportunities
for many business sectors of the Nepalese Economy in need of international investments and
multiple financing alternatives. The regime of Nepal has signed the framework arrangement with
China in this regard on May 12, 2017. Nowadays, it is possible for Nepal to initiate going with
China, its northern neighbor, on various sectors including infrastructure investment, trade,
commerce, using Chinese and other ports, currency arrangements, financial establishments and
others in the new theoretical account. This agreement has paved the way for Nepals new
economic linkages to China and many other nations, which become accessible to Nepal through
Chinese territories.

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One Belt, One Road- Impact on Nepal

We should view the Belt and Road Initiative as a long-term approach that promotes economic
and technological cooperation in the area. Regional integration is inevitable because of the
Chinese initiative promotes all provinces in China to develop Belt and Road-related plans,
including different infrastructure and transit tasks. Equally, one of the over five dozen countries
that have got an interest in the project and many of which have already begun operating in this
area, Nepal certainly needs to make the environment to facilitate the projects and, in return,
benefit from it in its priority countries.

This initiative also has the potential to mollify Nepals growing concern regarding harmonization
of development projects with local policies and priorities as it is founded on the rules of joint
consultation, joint construction and joint sharing.

An important project of the Belt and Road Initiative strongly supported Nepal is the Kerung
(China) Kathmandu - Pokhara Lumbini railway project, which the regime has nominated as
precedence. If it materializes, the Chinese railway will connect China (Shigatse of Tibet) with
Kathmandu, crossing over the Himalayan passes and opening up Nepal and other South Asian
countries for trade, investment as well as tourism in Tibet and Nepal. There could be new
opportunities for economic activities, technical innovation and the motion of the masses.
Likewise, Nepal also aspires to attract Chinese investments to build large hydropower storage
projects, making Nepal energy independent; the major existing challenge to international
investment in the rural area will be given over this development. This will also create
background for multifarious investments in agriculture, banking and finance, wellness, info
technology, mining and minerals, road, transport and tourism. With improved linkages, the
possibility of international trade will also increase.

A famous adage give a man a fish and he will eat for a day, teach a man fishing, he will eat for
a lifetime, implies that making someone able to do things by themselves by eradicating their
impairment will make them autonomous. Similarly, building roads will allow people-to-people
contact and their motion, grant them to engage in trade, pursue education and search for new
opportunities. Approach to roads and bridges can cause them more autonomy. Nepal should
embrace Chinas One Belt One Road Initiative with the same tone.

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One Belt, One Road- Impact on Nepal

It is extremely imperative for Nepal to expeditiously address its infrastructure gap to impress
upward the value chain and further integrate with the planetary economic system. The One Belt,
One Road initiative along with the proposed arrangements with China has the potential to answer
exactly that. Even so, the recent political upheaval in Nepal will surely bring up questions about
the implementation of the bilateral deals reached between the two nations during the prime
ministers historic visit to China in March this year. Be that as it may, our leaders should set
away their political pursuits and be trained to reap whatever has been sowed till date and stay
alert to the potential benefits that Chinas initiatives can bring to Nepal. Only then will we be
able to set the basic groundwork for the economic transformation of the nation that has been
promised to us and that we all yearn to visit.

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