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Nepal’s landlocked position between India and China, two of the world’s fastest-growing economies, presents both challenges and opportunities. On one hand, Nepal’s dependence on external gateways for international trade increases shipping costs, extends delivery times, and exposes exporters to monopolistic practices by shipping lines and intermediaries at transit or transshipment ports. These inefficiencies, coupled with risks of fraud in the supply chain, have reduced Nepal’s competitiveness in the global market.

Logistics costs in Nepal are estimated to account for about 25–30 percent of the total value of products, factoring in documentation time, bank and customs procedures, and transit delays. This high cost base hinders exports and slows industrial growth.

Yet, Nepal also holds distinct advantages. Its strategic location at the crossroads of South and East Asia, the potential to expand its manufacturing base, and a strong private sector active in freight forwarding for exports all position the country for growth. However, import handling, customs brokerage, warehousing, and distribution services remain underdeveloped.

In the absence of an integrated Industrial and Logistics Master Plan (ILMP), Nepal has been unable to fully leverage these strengths. The ILMP seeks to bridge this gap by integrating trade facilitation, industrial development, and logistics modernization into a unified national strategy. It recognizes logistics as the fourth pillar of competitiveness—alongside policy, infrastructure, and skills—and envisions transforming logistics into a sector that drives industrial diversification, export growth, and regional integration.

Why industrial–logistics synergy matters

For a landlocked economy like Nepal, efficient logistics are crucial for reducing trade costs, improving reliability, and connecting businesses to regional and global value chains. Fragmented logistics systems impose high transaction costs, cause unpredictable delivery schedules, and undermine confidence in international trade.

Integrating industrial and logistics planning means ensuring that dry ports, ICDs, logistics parks, cold chains, and customs points are physically and operationally linked to industrial zones, SEZs, and trade corridors. It also requires aligning industrial investment policies with those promoting logistics service providers (LSPs), enabling both sectors to grow in tandem and attract greater foreign direct investment (FDI).

Nepal’s logistics and industrial ecosystem

Over the past decade, Nepal’s logistics landscape has evolved significantly. The country now has dry ports and inland container depots (ICDs) in Birgunj, Bhairahawa, Nepalgunj, Biratnagar, Chobhar, and Tatopani, among others. The private sector, especially members of the Nepal Freight Forwarders Association (NEFFA), has played a key role in linking customs operations, transportation, and storage along major supply chains.

Despite these gains, challenges persist: limited multimodal connectivity, long border wait times, a complex policy environment, inadequate infrastructure for cold chain and e-commerce logistics, and limited adoption of digital systems for supply chain management and risk mitigation.

The ILMP aims to address these issues by ensuring that logistics are treated not as an afterthought but as a core component of industrial policy, fostering closer coordination between production hubs and logistics nodes.

Regional context: Corridors for connectivity

Nepal’s unique location between India and China makes it an ideal candidate to evolve from a landlocked to a land-linked nation, a vital transit bridge in South and East Asia. The South Corridor (India–Nepal) remains Nepal’s primary trade route through Indian ports, while the North Corridor (China–Nepal) and the East–West domestic corridor present new opportunities for balanced industrial growth and regional integration.

However, high costs, lengthy procedures, and repetitive documentation requirements across borders continue to constrain trade. Strengthening regional connectivity therefore requires proactive diplomatic and technical negotiations with transit countries—supported by a robust logistics master plan that builds confidence among neighbors to use Nepal’s territory as a transit or transshipment route.

Responding to global megatrends

Global supply chains are being reshaped by three major forces: digitalization, decarbonization, and resilience. To stay competitive, Nepal must embrace these trends by developing digital trade systems, promoting green logistics infrastructure, and building resilient, shock-absorbing supply chains that can adapt to global disruptions.

Vision for the future

Nepal’s vision should be to transform itself from a landlocked country into a land-linked, competitive, and sustainable industrial and logistics hub connecting South and East Asia. This vision centers on empowering small and medium enterprises (SMEs), integrating into global supply chains, and boosting national competitiveness.

Strategic priorities include: developing industrial-logistics corridors; strengthening private sector participation; accelerating digitalization; ensuring environmental sustainability, and building human capital to drive logistics innovation

The way forward

Freight forwarders and logistics service providers identify five key strategies outlined in the ILMP to realize this transformation: integrated planning, infrastructure modernization, policy coherence, governance and skills development, and regional integration

The Industrial and Logistics Master Plan (ILMP) is more than a blueprint for infrastructure; it is a roadmap for Nepal’s transformation. By positioning logistics as a catalyst for competitiveness, openness, and resilience, the ILMP represents a shared vision between policymakers and freight forwarders to turn Nepal’s geography from a constraint into an advantage. It marks a strategic shift from being landlocked to becoming land-linked, unlocking Nepal’s potential as a dynamic connector between the world’s fastest-growing regions.

The Chinese Football Association (CFA) announced on Wednesday that 45-year-old Shao Jiayi has been appointed as the new head coach of China's men's national football team, Xinhua reported.

Born in 1980, Shao represented China at the 2002 FIFA World Cup in South Korea and Japan and played for several seasons in the German Bundesliga. After retiring, he once served as assistant coach of the national team and worked with various Chinese youth national teams as team leader and assistant coach.

Shao took charge of Chinese Super League (CSL) side Qingdao West Coast in July 2024. This season, the team currently sits ninth in the CSL with nine wins, ten draws and ten losses, according to Xinhua. 

Taiwan must be allowed full and equal participation when China hosts Apec in 2026, the US State Department said on Nov 5, after Taipei complained that Beijing had "added a lot of conditions" to its attendance, Reuters reported.

The Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (Apec) is one of the only international bodies Chinese-claimed Taiwan is a member of, and next November's summit in Shenzhen will come as relations between Taipei and Beijing have plummeted amid a stepped-up Chinese military pressure campaign against the island.

China's foreign ministry said this week that Taiwan's participation in Apec activities must comply with the "one China" principle, which Beijing views as meaning both sides of the Taiwan Strait belong to one country, something Taipei's government rejects, according to Reuters.

Taiwan’s foreign minister said on Nov 5 that China has “added a lot of conditions” to its attendance at 2026’s Apec summit in the Chinese city of Shenzhen and gone back on a commitment to allow “equal” participation, Reuters reported.

The Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (Apec) is one of the only international bodies Chinese-claimed Taiwan is a member of, and next November’s summit will come as relations between Taipei and Beijing have plummeted amid a stepped-up Chinese military pressure campaign against the island.

Taiwan says it had been promised by China in 2024 the right to “equal participation” and that the safety of its people attending would be guaranteed, according to Reuters.

A Chinese court has sentenced five top members of an infamous Myanmar mafia to death as Beijing continues its crackdown on scam operations in South East Asia, BBC reported.

In all 21 Bai family members and associates were convicted of fraud, homicide, injury and other crimes, said a state media report published on the court website.

The family is among a handful of mafias that rose to power in the 2000s and transformed the impoverished backwater town of Laukkaing into a lucrative hub of casinos and red-light districts, according to BBC.

Beijing has said it will loosen a chip export ban it imposed after Dutch authorities took over Nexperia, a Chinese-owned chipmaker based in the Netherlands, BBC reported.

In September, the Netherlands invoked a Cold War-era law to take control of Nexperia, stating "serious governance shortcomings" which could impact the availability of chips - which are critical for making cars - in an emergency.

China said in response that it would not re-export Nexperia chips completed in its Chinese factories to Europe. Last month, the likes of Volvo Cars and Volkswagen warned it could lead to temporary shutdowns at their plants, according to BBC.

China's state-owned COFCO bought three U.S. soybean cargoes, two trade sources said, the country's first purchases from this year's U.S. harvest, shortly before a summit of leaders Donald Trump and Xi Jinping, Reuters reported.

As the two nations battle over trade tariffs, the lack of Chinese buying has cost U.S. farmers billions of dollars in lost sales, after they largely supported Trump in his campaigns for president.

Although COFCO's deal for December-January shipment of about 180,000 metric tons of soybeans was China's first such buy in months, traders do not expect a significant resumption in demand for U.S. cargoes after recent large South American purchases, according to Reuters .

COFCO did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.

China’s exports to the United States fell 27% in September from the year before, even though growth in its global exports hit a six-month high, Associated Press reported.

Customs figures released Monday showed that China’s worldwide exports were 8.3% higher than a year earlier, at $328.5 billion, surpassing economists’ estimates. That was markedly better than the 4.4% year-on-year increase in August.

Imports grew 7.4% last month, significantly better than a 1.3% increase by year in August, although a weaker domestic economy and a real estate sector downturn continue to weigh on demand and consumption, according to Associated Press.

Donald Trump's latest threat to impose an additional 100% tariff on Chinese goods is "a typical example of US double standards", China's government has said, BBC reported.

A commerce ministry spokesperson also said China could introduce its own unspecified "countermeasures" if the US president carries out his threat, adding it was "not afraid" of a possible trade war.

On Friday, Trump hit back at Beijing's move to tighten its rules for rare earths exports, accusing it of "becoming very hostile" and trying to hold the world "captive". He also threatened to pull out of a meeting with China's President Xi Jinping later this month, according to BBC.

But on Sunday, Trump wrote: "Don't worry about China, it will all be fine!" 

Chinese car making giant BYD says the UK has become its biggest market outside China, after its sales there surged by 880% in September compared to a year earlier, BBC reported.

The company says it sold 11,271 cars in the UK last month, with the plug-in hybrid version of its Seal U sports utility vehicle (SUV) accounting for the majority of those sales.

It comes after figures from the car industry body the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) showed that sales of electric vehicles (EVs) jumped to a record high in September.

The UK is particularly attractive to firms like BYD as the country has not imposed tariffs on Chinese EVs, unlike other major markets such as the European Union and the US, according to BBC.

hina, the world's biggest source of planet-warming gases, has for the first time committed to an absolute target to cut its emissions, BBC reported.

In a video statement to the UN in New York, President Xi Jinping said that China would reduce its greenhouse gas emissions across the economy by 7-10% by 2035, while "striving to do better".

The announcement comes at a time the US is rolling back on its commitments, with President Donald Trump on Tuesday calling climate change a "con job".

But some critics said China's plan did not go as far as hoped to keep global climate goals in reach, according to BBC.

China on Wednesday called the framework deal reached in Madrid to switch short-video app TikTok to U.S.-controlled ownership a "win-win" and said it would review TikTok's technology exports and intellectual property licensing, in a state media editorial, Reuters reported.

Investors on both sides of the Pacific are now waiting for a call scheduled for Friday between U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping in which the agreement should be confirmed.

Progress over the popular social media app - which counts 170 million U.S. users - is seen as key to facilitating further talks in the coming months as the world's two largest economies chart a path beyond their current tariff truce.

Reuters has reported that the deal, transferring TikTok's U.S. assets to U.S. owners from China's Bytedance, is similar to an agreement worked out earlier this year, but which was shelved after Trump announced steep tariffs on Chinese goods, according to Reuters.

Washington has reached a "framework" deal with China on TikTok's US operations, paving the way for American ownership, as the world's two biggest economies negotiate a trade deal, BBC reported.

The framework was set in talks in Madrid, US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said on Monday, adding that President Donald Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping would "complete" the deal on Friday.

Trump said on Truth Social that the talks had "gone very well". China confirmed a framework agreement but said no deal would be made at the expense of their firms' interests.

A Wednesday deadline looms for TikTok's Chinese owner to find a buyer for US operations or face a ban in the country over national security concerns, according to BBC.

China has congratulated Sushila Karki for her appointment to the post of Prime Minister of the Interim Government of Nepal.

The northern neighbor also expressed commitment to collaborate to further strengthen mutual relations.

China congratulated Prime Minister Karki in a response to a query of a journalist with the spokesperson of the Foreign Ministry of China regarding Karki's appointment as the Prime Minister. 

Stating that there has been a friendly-relation between China and Nepal for a long time, the Spokesperson mentioned that China would respect the path of development chosen by the Nepali people independently, according to the Chinese Embassy in Kathmandu.

"We are ready to work with Nepal to promote the five principles of peaceful co-existence, to exchange and increase support in different sectors and further strengthen bilateral relations," shared the Chinese Embassy quoting the spokesperson.

China has denounced the passage of Canadian and Australian naval vessels through the Taiwan Strait, calling it a deliberate provocation that endangers regional security. The People’s Liberation Army said its forces tracked and warned the ships during their transit, according to Reuters.

Taiwan’s defence ministry confirmed it monitored the movement and deployed assets to maintain stability.

Beijing insists the strait falls under its jurisdiction, while Taiwan and its allies, including US., regard it as international waters and stress freedom of navigation.

The incident comes amid growing Chinese military pressure on Taiwan, marked by frequent drills around the island. Ottawa and Canberra have yet to respond to Beijing’s criticism, Reuters reported.

US President Donald Trump warned that India and Russia appear to be slipping into China’s orbit after their leaders joined Chinese President Xi Jinping at a regional summit in Tianjin, Reuters reported.

A photograph from the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation meeting showed Xi walking hand in hand with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Russian President Vladimir Putin, a display of unity that drew Trump’s sharp reaction.

He said both countries looked “lost” to the “deepest, darkest China,” highlighting Washington’s unease over shifting alliances and the deepening US–China rivalry.