China’s Tibet Autonomous Region is set to fund a five-year initiative in Nepal’s northern border districts, offering different kinds of logistical and material support, mostly for social and economic development projects.

Officials familiar with the development told the Post that the Tibetan government will provide 20 million yuan or around Rs370 million each year under the initiative for the next five years.

To execute the initiative, the first preparatory meeting was held in Lhasa on April 23 and 24. It was co-chaired by Kamal Prasad Bhattarai, joint secretary of the Ministry of Federal Affairs and General Administration of Nepal, and Baiman Yangzong, director general of the Foreign Affairs Office of China’s Tibet Autonomous Region, according to a statement issued by the Nepal’s Consulate General in Lhasa.

“The discussions were focused on the coordination mechanism of aid projects by the Tibet Autonomous Region, China to Nepal in terms of work schedule, selection modality of the projects, and the ways of implementation and monitoring,” said the statement.

During his Nepal visit in November, Wang Junzheng, the CPC secretary for the Xizang (Tibet) Autonomous Region of China, had informed Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Foreign Affairs Narayan Kaji Shrestha that Tibet would provide Nepal 20 million yuan for administrative reform and development needs in Nepal.

The Chinese assistance will be used for building schools and health posts, installing solar electricity, and funding other small projects in the northern 15 districts of Nepal, said a Nepali official who attended the meeting in Lhasa last week.

The 15 districts are Taplejung, Solukhumbu, Sankhuwasabha, Dolakha, Sindhupalchok, Rasuwa, Dhading, Gorkha, Manang, Mustang, Bajhang, Dolpa, Mugu, Humla and Darchula.

During the meeting, both sides agreed to hold the meeting of aid projects twice in the first half of the year, so as to focus on the projects’ arrangements, and twice in the second half of the year for the implementation and review of the implemented projects.

Furthermore, the two sides discussed enhancing support for improving the livelihood of the people residing in the border districts through various projects, according to the statement.

The next meeting in Kathmandu that is supposed to take place in May-June will select projects, according to Nepali officials.

The Ministry of Local Development is currently compiling a list of projects needed in the 15 districts that share a border with Tibet. Xizang is the new name for Tibet that China started using from last year.

The ‘Second Meeting of the Aid Projects to Nepal’ will take place on a mutually convenient date in May 2024, said the statement by Nepal’s Consulate General in Lhasa.

China has been implementing small-scale aid projects in the northern border districts of Nepal.

In the past, the Chinese government had provided each of these districts Rs3 million for the development of village development committees (VDCs), then local administrative units, in the districts.

In 2014, in a deal between the two countries, China had agreed to provide 10 million yuan (USD 1.63 million) annually from 2014 to 2018 through the Tibetan government in areas like health, education and road sectors to improve the livelihood of the residents in those districts.

Later in 2018, the China International Development Cooperation Agency (CIDCA), China’s external foreign aid agency, signed a cooperation agreement with Nepal's Ministry of Finance to provide development assistance in Nepal’s northern district and agreement was signed in 2019 but no substantive progress has been made.

In April 2019, during the state visit of the then president Bidya Devi Bhandari to China, Nepal and China signed the Northern Area Infrastructure Development and Livelihood Improvement Project (NAIDLIP), where Beijing had pledged to provide funds for implementing the project, which was estimated to cost 20 million yuan.

According to the local development ministry, the project will support roads linking settlements, schools, health facilities, market centers within or among local units. The project also aimed to support agriculture and irrigation sector, surface or solar lifting irrigation, micro irrigation, commercial agro-veterinary, business promotion, solar dryer, dairy industry, cold storage and fruits or medical plant processing units, and solar energy. But the scheme was severely impacted by the Covid pandemic, said officials.

In October 2022, the Chinese government provided 14 excavators to 14 municipalities of 14 different districts bordering China. The Tibetan government also supported food supplies and other essentials worth over 200 million yuan to the 15 districts in the past five years.