Nepal and the BRI conundrum

Picture: A supply chain logistics company working in Nepal displaying supply routes from Kathmandu to the land port of Lanzhou. Picture credits: The Araniko Project.

Whether the political parties in Nepal take any action or not or even if they end up doing nothing at all, by now it has become established that the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) in Nepal cannot escape the web of domestic and international politics. It has been 7 years and so far Nepal is yet to execute a single BRI project. Why the BRI could not take off in Nepal? Numerous articles in recent weeks have highlighted the development of BRI from its geo-political implications to identifying new areas for cooperation in regards to PM Oli’s visit to China. But in another sense, Nepal also missed opportunities to catch up to global developments of BRI, particularly during the first phase of BRI. Here I will highlight how we failed to catch up to China’s development of BRI post 2017.