Nepal to seek $1 bn soft loan from India

Nepal will seek a $1 billion soft loan from India, Prime Minister Baburam Bhattarai said today as he sought to allay fears of Indian investors about doing business with the Maoist-ruled country.

On the eve of his four-day maiden visit to India, Bhattarai said he would like to focus on increasing economic cooperation and development with the neighbouring country apart from building trust on political and security related issues.

"I would like to focus more on building trust on two issues, basically political and security related issues between the two countries and second economic cooperation and development," he told PTI in an interview.

"Personally, my focus will be to foster more closer development partnership with India. The new paradigm of Indo- Nepal relations will be to foster development partnership between the two countries.

"I will also ask for a $1 billion soft loan from government of India during my talks," the Prime Minister said.

India had announced a similar loan for Bangladesh during the New Delhi visit of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in January 2010. The billion-dollar soft loan deal, the biggest credit package New Delhi has ever earmarked for any nation, was inked when Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee visited Dhaka in August last year.