Government receives loan based on needs and priorities-PM Oli

Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli has said Nepal would receive foreign loan based on the country needs and priorities. In an interview to Mathew Amliwala for BBC World, PM Oli clarified that the Nepal government has the capacity to manage such loan.

On a query regarding Nepal's participation in Belt and Road Initiative, he responded, "We invite investors for investment. We receive loan keeping in mind our country needs and priorities. We do not accept loan in a rampant manner. We also do not like to talk about other's experience rather we could manage it based on our own experience and we do have estimates for this as well".

On another query regarding environmental impacts of infrastructural development, he said, "Nepal has substantial contributions to strike environmental balance. This year we would put in place a campaign to plant more than 10 million trees".

He went on saying that, "If we cut down 2.5 million trees we would plant additional 5 million saplings. We are also working for river. We do have forest in 45 percent land. Snow has covered 17 percent land of the country. It helps reserve and preserve water resources and also maintains humidity in air and land".

The Prime Minster further stated, "We do have 62 percent land to address environmental issues. Nepal is always cautious of environmental degradation and carelessness while carrying out development projects".

At the onset of the programme, environmental journalist Nabin Singh Khadka had showed a situation where Mount Everest summiteers have to wait for hours in queue in course of scaling the highest peak.

A news report showcasing the death of 11 mountaineers this year. In the presentation, a climber namely Alan Arnet said limited proper timing, over permission and low cost proposal of the company due to competition are three major causes behind the fatal incidents in the world's highest peak. PM Oli responded to this situation as unnecessary hype and clarified that the government did not grant over permissions for the climbers to scale the Everest

"The mountaineers waited for long for good weather. Sometimes they need to wait for days. This needs to be reviewed. The situation is not complicated as rumored", he added.

Noting that adequate attention would be paid on granting permission to summiteers as well as monitoring the conducts of the concerned officer in coming days, he said it was not truth that the climbers had died because of disrupted traffic.

"We have made some amendments to rules. Our amendments include numbers of guides, oxygen cylinder, summit preparatory obligations and proper number of mountaineers", he added