On January 12, the opening ceremony of the Sino-Nepal cross-border land cable was held at the Nepal Telecom headquarters in Kathmandu, Nepal. Over 100 persons including Minister of Information and Communication of Nepal and Chinese Ambassador to Nepal Yu Hong attended the opening ceremony. For this day, China and Nepal have been preparing for more than four years. For years, Nepal’s Internet connection service has been monopolized by India. "China ends India's Internet monopoly in Nepal," the Hindu newspaper reported on the 12th, which is part of China's plan to promote Internet services in the "Belt and Road" countries.

Wang Yonglin, chief representative of South Asia Region of China Telecom International Co., Ltd., said that in the Sino-Nepal cable project, China Telecom has built a total of 820km of optical cables on the mountain plateau with an average altitude of 4,000m. In the construction process, the team overcame various difficulties such as six months of heavy snowfall every year, mudslides and other natural disasters in rainy seasons, and extremely harsh construction conditions, over three and a half years from the official start of construction until finally completed.

The Indian media has long been concerned about the progress of China-Nepal Internet cable construction. India’s International Financial Times describe the matter using the words “broadband diplomacy”, thinking that it will promote the development of Nepal’s Internet infrastructure and make it more “independent”. Nepal’s “Himala Times” reported that the accessing of the Chinese Internet provided an alternative catering for Nepal’s growing demand and increased the competitiveness of Nepal’s domestic telecom operators. The Republican newspaper of Nepal said that even if the Internet from India may encounter interruption, the Internet from China would enable Nepal to use uninterrupted network services. Deputy general manager of the International Business Division of Nepal Telecom, said that, more importantly, access to the Internet from China helped transform Nepal from a geographical network disadvantage into a hub for communication between Asia Pacific and South Asia countries.

Yu Hong, Chinese Ambassador to Nepal, said that the connection of China-Nepal cable would shorten the distance between the two countries and further narrow the distance between the Chinese and Nigerian people and greatly promote the development of bilateral trade, and set a successful example for the “Belt and Road” projects.

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