Foundation stone laid for 140 mln USD worth of Sino-Nepal joint venture in cement industry

Nepal's Speaker of House of Representatives Krishna Bahadur Mahara (1st R) and Vice President of China's Huaxin Cement Xu Gang (2nd R) attend the foundation stone laying ceremony of Huaxin Cement plant, a Chinese-Nepali joint venture, at Benighat Rorang Rural Municipality in Dhading, Nepal, March 1, 2019. (Xinhua/Sunil Sharma)

The construction of another new advanced cement plant, the second Chinese-Nepali joint venture in domestic cement industry after Hongshi-Shivam Cement, has started formally in central Nepal.

Laying the foundation stone for the investment of 15 billion Nepali Rupees (around 140 million U.S. dollars) with representatives from China's Huaxin Cement and its Nepali partner, Speaker of House of Representatives Krishna Bahadur Mahara expressed hope that Huaxin Cement plant would be an exemplary industry, benefiting the country's economy.

"The plant is one of the largest foreign investment projects in Nepal, I believe that the reliable Chinese company will develop it into a model factory, encouraging other industries," Mahara told Xinhua on the project site in Dhading district after the ceremony.

After obtaining the foreign direct investment approval from the Investment Board Nepal in December 2015, Huaxin Cement and its local partner acquired a limestone mine from the Department of Mines and Geology through a global tender.

According to their plan, the cement plan, with a production capacity of 3,000 tonnes of cement per day, will be constructed within one year.

Xu Gang, Vice President of Huaxin Cement told Xinhua, "We will bring highly efficient modern equipments from China to make sure that our products are both high quality and eco-friendly."

Xu's Nepali partner Suraj Vaidya,Chairman of Vaidya Group of Industries, and former president of Federation of Nepalese Chamber of Commerce and Industries, said "The joint venture sends a very strong signal to our Chinese friends -- Chinese investors are welcome to invest in Nepal where the potential is tremendous and projects are profitable."

Along with Provincial Ministers, members of parliament, political leaders, few hundreds of locals also attended the foundation stone laying ceremony and most of them brimmed with joy like enjoying a festival.

Hari Dullakoti, Chairman of the Benighat Rorang Rural Municipality, said, "We believe that the construction of cement plant in our area would be beneficial to the locals in terms of employment, infrastructures and other facilities. It would also help our district get identified in international scale."

Huaxin Company informed that the industry would provide employment to 300 local people directly and to 1,000 people indirectly. Besides, it has also planned to support in building a hospital and a school in the village in future.