Kathmandu, March 14:

China is likely to provide a sum of 20 million Yuan (about $2.48 million) as a part of the annual development assistance, for which an agreement will be signed during the upcoming visit of State Councilor of the People’s Republic of China, Tang Jiaxuan.

Jiaxuan, who is in Sri Lanka, is arriving here on Thursday on a ‘high-level visit’. “China provides about 80 million Yuan ($ 9.94 million) as development assistance to Nepal annually. The agreement of providing 20 million yuan is likely to be signed in the upcoming visit of Jiaxuan,” said a source.

Rest of the 60 million Yuan ($7.47 million) too will be provided to Nepal when another high level visit takes place this year. Officials at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MoFA) refused to comment on any such matter.

Jiaxuan is scheduled to hold a meeting with King Gyanendra, government vice-chairmen Dr Tulsi Giri and Kirti Nidhi Bista, and the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Ramesh Nath Pandey.

He is also expected to meet leaders of Nepali Congress and the CPN-UML, but the meetings are yet to be confirmed.

Besides holding official meetings with the concerned Nepali officials, Jiaxuan also plans to visit Lumbini, the birthplace of Lord Gautam Buddha. The relief to Nepal may lie in China bringing the customs duty on Nepali exports to zero per cent which is a huge boost in the wake of the what the Indian embassy sources said a “proposed” four per cent countervailing duty on Nepali exports to India.

Agreement with China in this regard is going to be the highlight of the visit. China is working on seven different development projects including road construction, hospital and research centre construction in Nepal.

Apart from laying optical-fibre from Kathmandu to Lahsha for telecommunication purpose, China is working on construction of civil servants’ hospital and Herbal Research and Training Centre in Kathmandu; Banepa Polytechnical Institute at Banepa; research centre for King Mahendra Trust for Nature Conservation and the the construction of Rasuwagadhi-Safrubeshi road.

“China has policy to implement development projects through government, and the development grant of 20 million Yuan would give continuity to the ongoing Chinese development projects in Nepal,” said the source.