Tibet pushes construction of “Belt and Road” initiative

Chinese Premier Li Keqiang, when giving the Government Work Report at the National People's Congress on Mar. 5th, indicated that, China will firmly push the construction of “Belt and Road” initiative.

The northwestern part of Tibet is connected with the “Silk Road Economic Belt”; Tibet also falls within the “21st Century Maritime Silk Road” in its southern part, this will be enriching and conducive to the national opening-up strategy.

Losang Jamcan, chairman of the regional government of Tibet, said that: “We believe that this is a big opportunity for Tibet to carry out opening up. Tibet borders with many South Asian countries such as India and Nepal, possessing continental borderlines stretching over 4,000 kilometers. Historically, Tibet was an important channel for China to communicate with South Asian countries.”

Losang Jamcan said that, Tibet’s current degree of development is not high, interconnectivity is relatively behind, which has effected the economic and trade cooperation with neighbors.

He hoped that during the 13th Five-Year Plan period, it will be possible to strengthen construction of basic facilities, and transform Tibet into a highway bound to South Asia.

He said: “For example, accelerate the construction of public roads, railroads and even air corridors. During the past few years through cooperation with Nepal, the Tibet Airline Company  and Nepalese National Airline company jointly set up the Himalaya Airlines Company. Other than this, Tibet’s hydroelectric power resources are abundant, and the Jinsha River, Lancang River,

Nu River and the Brahmaputra River hydropower development and solar energy development will continue to be supported. There is a great potential to develop Tibet's power resources.

With construction of electricity transmission channel, Tibet's power can even be sold to Nepal which has a serious shortage. "