GLOBAL PERSPECTIVES

In Nepal, Globalization Finds a New Venue

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Ian Morris
Board of Contributors

Jul 19, 2018 | 08:00 GMT

For much of its history, Nepal marked the far edge of South Asia. But as China has reasserted itself as a global power, the country's remote location has become an advantage.

For much of its history, Nepal marked the far edge of South Asia. But as China has reasserted itself as a global power, the country's remote location has become an advantage.

(atdr/Shutterstock)

Highlights

  • Nepal, once relegated to the geopolitical fringes, has become the subject of growing Chinese interest — and investment — over the past few decades.
  • The country will continue to take advantage of its proximity to China, benefiting from investment and infrastructure projects under the Belt and Road Initiative.
  • As Western powers such as the United States pull back from globalization, China will step in to increase its influence in the developing world.

To be sure, Nepal may seem like an odd place to measure globalization's health: In many ways it is literally the back of beyond -- landlocked, mountainous (it boasts eight of the world's 10 highest peaks) and desperately poor. Calculated at purchasing power parity, the average Nepali earns just $8 per day; at nominal exchange rates, he or she makes barely $2. The pay rate translates into appalling squalor for much of the population. Walking through one village just outside Kathmandu, I encountered a woman sitting on the front step of her tin-roofed shack, in full view of everyone, delousing her daughter. Nepal produces a paltry 0.03 percent (nominal) or 0.06 percent (purchasing power parity) of the world's wealth, while the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership, if it were to go ahead, would link 42-46 percent of global gross domestic product in the biggest bilateral deal ever made. Who cares...

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