Krishna Bahadur Mahara, Speaker of the House of Representatives of Federal Parliament of Nepal, arrived at Lhasa on 7 September for a 6 day visit of the Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR) of the People's Republic of China (PRC) upon the invitation of the Chairman of the TAR Government Qi Zhala.

He is invited as a guest for the opening ceremony of Fourth China-Tibet International Tourism and Culture Expo 2018 to be held on 7 September, 2018 in Lhasa and as the keynote speaker in the Trans-Himalayan Belt and Road International Cooperation Forum to be held in Lulang Town of Lizhi City on 10 September 2018.

Upon his arrival at Lhasa Gonggar International Airport, he was welcomed by Ju Jianhua, Vice-Chairman of the People's Congress of TAR, PRC, and Gobinda Bahadur Karkee, Consul General of Nepal in Lhasa.

Speaker Mahara delivered a speech in the opening ceremony of the Fourth China-Tibet International Tourism and Culture Expo 2018. While wishing for the success of the event, he commended TAR for her spectacular social and economic development.

Shedding light on the importance of the Expo, he told that the Expo provides a good platform for showcasing Tibet’s original products, trade and business potentials, culture, religion and tourist destinations. While underscoring the importance given by Nepal to the Expo, he hoped that Nepal could enhance the exports to China and reduce its trade deficit as there are a number of Nepali enterprises and businesses participating in the expo.

Speaker Mahara also shed light on the excellent state of relations between Nepal and China from the ancient times as well as the historical importance and unfolding prospects of TAR as the gateway to bilateral engagements in trade, tourism, culture and other spheres of interests between the two countries.

Expressing happiness over the tremendous socio-economic progress achieved by China, he expressed the desire of Nepal to be benefitted from this development.

Noting that Nepal has already joined the Belt-and-Road Initiative of China, he underscored the tremendous potentialities of bilateral cooperation between the two countries particularly in the areas of cross-border connectivity, infrastructure building and energy under the Initiative in the coming days.

He also mentioned that are many border points between Nepal and China with lots of potentials for promoting bilateral trade and commerce and wished that they could be explored for the promotion of trade, tourism and investment in the days to come.

On 9 September speaker Mahara is scheduled, along with the high level dignitaries of TAR, to lay the foundation stone for the project of the reconstruction of Consulate General of Nepal buildings in Lhasa and launch the reconstruction project of friendship bridges of Tatopani-Zhangmu (Khasa) and Rasuwagadhi-Jilung. The reconstruction project of the two friendship bridges is aided by the central Government of China and the reconstruction of the Consulate General buildings is aided by the TAR Government.

Speaker Mahara is accompanied by 5 Members of Federal Parliament, Secretary of the Secretariat of Federal Parliament, his own secretaries and a journalist.

Speaker Mahara is scheduled to return to Nepal from TAR on 12 September 2018 upon the completion of his visit.