Naindra Prasad Upadhaya, Nepalese consul-general in Lhasa, capital of Tibet, said, "I have witnessed Tibet's amazing growth in recent years," when speaking of Tibet's development.
Upadhaya has worked in Lhasa for more than two years since he took office as Nepalese consul-general in October, 2007. He said, "I'm very excited about and inspired by Tibet's rapid development in the past two years, which has left a deep impression on me."
Photo taken on January 29, 2010, shows Naindra Prasad Upadhaya (R), Nepalese consul-general in Lhasa, capital of Tibet, interviewed by the Xinhua News Agency, photo from Xinhua.
Upadhaya, who attended in January as a non-voting member the Third Session of the 9th Tibet Autonomous Regional Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), is very familiar with Tibet's economic and social development.
According to the official, Tibet scored a 12-percent rise in its GDP in 2009, which has been growing at a double-digit rate for 17 straight years and this could not be achieved without the Chinese Central Government's great support to Tibet in terms of financing, policy, technology and personnel.
While working in Tibet, Upadhaya has inspected Tibet's remote rural areas. He said that Tibet 50 years ago cannot be comparable to today's Tibet. Fifty years ago, the Tibetan people simply could not afford meat or drink the highland barley liquor, and most of the Tibetans did not have their own properties.
But now, even in Tibet's remote areas, the Tibetan farmers and herders have tractors, TV sets and mobile phones. A lot of Tibetan families have had access to electricity and tap water and lived in the houses built by the local government.
Upadhaya added that apart from economic development, the Tibet Regional Government has also paid close attention to cultural undertakings. For instance, he has seen many monasteries in Tibet under renovation. He said, "Tibet's development is balanced in terms of both materials and culture."
The Nepalese official noted that more and more Nepalese people have come to Lhasa to do business thanks to Tibet's rapid development in recent years. Currently, Lhasa has 300 Nepalese business people, who run hotels, restaurants and handicraft shops.
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