Zhangmu port between China, Nepal likely to reopen in May 2019

Zhangmu port in Xigaze, Southwest China's Tibet Autonomous Region, which was damaged during an 8.1-magnitude earthquake in Nepal in 2015, could reopen as soon as May 2019, a government official said on Monday.

The information was disclosed by Yang Guoliang, an official with the Department of Commerce of Tibet Autonomous Region, at a forum where a China-Nepal commercial report was released.

Yang also told the Global Times that because there's a gap between the road conditions in China and Nepal, the two countries are still trying hard to reopen the port.

The two countries are attempting to reopen the port as a way to revive bilateral trade, which plunged after the earthquake.

According to the report, more than 80 percent of trade between China and Nepal was transported through the Zhangmu port before the earthquake. At that time, there often were freight trucks from Nepal lined up on the mountain roads in the Zhangmu port.

In nearby villages, many local people ran shops selling imported goods from Nepal. The earthquake, however, severely damaged the Zhangmu port and forced it to close.

Statistics in the report showed that in 2014, bilateral trade reached $2.33 billion, up by 3.4 percent on a yearly basis. But because of the earthquake, trade plunged to 866 million yuan ($125.6 million) in 2015, down by 63 percent year-on-year.

China and Nepal issued a joint statement in June, with both sides agreeing to reopen the Zhangmu port as soon as possible, according to a statement published on gov.cn.