Kathmandu Aug. 23 (RSS): Japanese Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori’s day-long visit to Nepal will be important in further consolidating bilateral ties and enhancing trade and investment.
In the context of the trade between the two countries and specially the export from Nepal to Japan being too low, the visit of the Japanese Prime Minister is expected to enhance trade and bilateral investment.
Various goods including fabric, ready-made garments and carpets worth U.S. $ 4,910,000 were exported to Japan while cars, machinery and other goods worth U.S. $ 3,199,000,000 were imported from Japan in 1998.
Relations between Nepal and Japan can be traced back to1899 when a Japanese Buddhist monk, Ekai Kawaguchi, first came to Nepal on his way to Tibet. The diplomatic relations between the two countries were established in 1956.
High level exchange of visits between the two countries has contributed to the promotion of bilateral relations. In this connection mention must be made of a state visit in 1978 and an official visit in 1985 undertaken by Their Majesties the King and the Queen to Japan.
Likewise, His Royal Highness the Crown Prince paid a visit to Japan in 1990 to attend the enthronement ceremony of Emperor Akihito. Their Majesties the Emperor and Empress (then Crown Prince and Crown Princess) paid an official visit to Nepal in 1960, and another visit in 1975 to attend the Auspicious Coronation Ceremony of His Majesty the King.
Similarly Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala visited Japan in 1998. He was the first elected Prime Minister to visit Japan.
The exchange of bilateral visit has increased during the last few years. Speaker Taranath Ranabhat visited Japan last year while Minister for Foreign Affairs Chakra Prasad bastola visited Japan two months ago.
At that time, the Japanese side had given assurances of all possible cooperation in resolving the Bhutanese refugees issue.
From the Japanese side, a number of visits have taken place in recent times. Vice Minister for Posts and Telecommunications Shuzi Kusuda, vice speaker Kouzo Watanabe, Vice Minister for Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Tadahiro Mitsushita and JICA president Kimio Fujita have visited Nepal.
Japanese assistance to Nepal is in the form of bilateral grants, bilateral loans and multilateral aids.
From 1987 to 1992, Nepal was one of the ten major recipient countries of Japan’s grant aid, except for the years 1989 and 1990. In 1992, Nepal ranked the fifth major recipient country in the world. Japan has been among the top donor countries to Nepal since 1980.
Japanese assistance to Nepal was more than Rs 2 billion in 1996 for projects such as increase of food production, construction of Sindhuli-Bardibas road, rural telecommunications, supply of construction equipment, debt relief, etc.
In the same year, Japan provided Rs 10 billion in loan assistance for Kulekhani and Kaligandaki Hydropower Projects.
In this context, the visit of the Japanese Prime Minister will be important in the development endeavours of Nepal, institutional development of democracy, enhancement of trade and investment and increasing contact at the governmental and the people’s level, it is said.