A 28-member delegation from the Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR), led by Vice Chairman of the TAR Government Lobsang Gyaltsen, arrived in Kathmandu for a 12-day visit to Nepal on August 5, 2003.
The delegation met Nepal’s Minister of Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation Sarbendra Nath Shukla on August 6, 2003 and discussed ways to “strengthen their friendship, especially in the field of the trans-Himalayan tourism cooperation,” according to a Xinhua report on August 6, 2003.
According to media reports from Nepal, an accord on promoting tourism was signed on August 6, 2003 between the two sides by TAR’s Director General of Tourism Bureau Jhang Wansheng and Joint Secretary of Nepal’s Ministry of Tourism Yagya Prasad Gautam.
The delegation is visiting at the invitation of the Nepali government, Xinhua said.
Nepal’s Minister Shukla told Gyaltsen that “Nepal has become a doorway for the tourist destinations in the Tibet Autonomous Region of China, because there are more than 50,000 tourists entering into the region from Nepal in recent years,” according to Xinhua.
Gyaltsen responded saying “that China’s western development strategy has provided a great opportunity for the development of tourist industry in the Tibet Autonomous Region, and also for the cooperation between China and Nepal in this field.”
