Coronavirus chills trade, tourism between China’s Tibet, Nepal

By Zhang Hongpei Source:Global Times Published: 2020/3/3 21:28:41

A tour guide speaks during a live streaming tour in the Potala Palace, a UNESCO world heritage, in Lhasa, southwest China's Tibet Autonomous Region on March 1, 2020. The Potala Palace, a landmark in southwest China's Tibet Autonomous Region, held a live streaming tour session Sunday, the first time in its over 1,300-year history. (Xinhua/Jigme Dorje)



Trade between China's Tibet Autonomous Region and Nepal is likely to tumble in the first quarter due to the impact of the deadly coronavirus, yet the previous booming trade will recover gradually as long as the epidemic subsides, local officials and business representatives told the Global Times on Tuesday.

Tibet has had zero new confirmed cases of the coronavirus for over a month. The region's only confirmed case was discharged from a hospital in early February. Nepal's only confirmed case was discharged from a hospital in late January.

According to the regulation of the disease control headquarters in Lhasa city, all arriving passengers must go through 14 days of quarantine.

And, the Nepali government has suspended the visa-on-arrival regime for nationals of five countries - China, South Korea, Japan, Italy and Iran. The move will take effect from March 7, the Xinhua News Agency reported on Monday.

"As the two places are clear of the virus now, they have rolled out stricter measures to prevent any possibility of virus entry, which means trade, tourism and personnel exchanges between Tibet and Nepal have nearly halted," an industry insider based in Gyirong, a border port in Tibet linking the region and neighboring Nepal, told the Global Times.

"There were usually 70-80 people and even 200 trucks in the peak season going via the port per day, but now both vehicles and people are rarely seen," the insider said.

"As far as I know, on the other side of the bridge - Rasuwagadhi port, Gyirong port's counterpart on the Nepali side through which foreign tourists enter Nepal - there are basically no staff," he added.

Rasuwagadhi port was closed on January 29 for 15 days to prevent the spread of coronavirus after the epidemic outbreak in China, Nepal's newspaper The Himalayan Times reported. 

Prior to the outbreak of the coronavirus, international land crossing points witnessed steadily increasing flows trade and tourists between Tibet and Nepal.

Data from Lhasa's customs showed that in 2019, trade between Tibet and Nepal via Gyirong reached 3.9 billion yuan ($560 million), up 12.6 percent year-on-year, while entry-exit passenger movements stood at about 150,000.

Tibet's exports to Nepal have been mainly labor-intensive commodities such as clothing and shoes since 2014, while imports from Nepal have been mainly traditional handicrafts such as bronze statues, copper ornaments and textiles.

Lhakbha Tringley, president of Lhasa-based Tibet Holy Trust Industry & Trade Co, told the Global Times on Tuesday that the company's major exports to Nepal - wool and cashmere products - have not been shipped to Nepal because of the epidemic.

"The Chinese Spring Festival holidays and the Tibetan New Year are usually low seasons for our exports," said Tringley, adding that now the situation has affected by the epidemic. 

The Tibetan New Year, known as Losar, is the most important festival in the Tibetan calendar, and it fell on February 24 this year.

Tringley forecast more than a 50 percent decline on a yearly basis of his exports to Nepal.

A Lhasa-based official who asked to remain anonymous told the Global Times on Tuesday that "it is inevitable that bilateral trade in the first quarter would slump due to the virus, but it would not change the upward trend of China-Nepal economic and trade relations."

"With prevention measures gradually loosening as the epidemic comes under control, it is expected that the second half of 2020 would witness large recovery of growth," the official said. 

Nepal has been actively involved in cooperation with China under the Belt and Road Initiative in recent years, including infrastructure construction, energy supply and cultural communication.

China is the second-largest tourism source country for Nepal. In 2019, Nepal attracted 254,150 Indian tourists and 169,543 Chinese tourists, according to data from the Nepali authorities.

However, the outbreak of the virus has posed a setback to the Himalayan country, which proposed the Visit Nepal Year-2020 campaign, aiming to attract 2 million tourists, nearly double the number in 2019.

The Nepali government deferred the international tourism promotional activities planned as a part of the campaign due to the epidemic, Xinhua reported over the weekend.



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