KATHMANDU — A China-funded project to supply Nepal’s remote areas with sanitation materials and daily necessities was inaugurated Friday in Lalitpur, a city in the Kathmandu Valley.

The project shall be funded through the Global Development and South-South Cooperation Fund of China and is the second in Nepal funded by the Chinese government through the cooperation fund after the food package distribution program under the Smiling Children Project.

The new project will provide supplies for sanitation, pandemic prevention and environmental protection as well as daily necessities for schools and communities in remote areas of Nepal.

The inauguration ceremony was held jointly by the China Foundation for Rural Development (CFRD) Nepal Office and the Nepal Country Office of the United Nations Development Program (UNDP).

Addressing the ceremony, Xie Yu, economic and commercial counsellor of the Chinese embassy in Nepal, voiced his hope that the project can cover those truly in need and make the students in 25 schools in Nepal’s remote areas feel the care and love of the Chinese people and help lift them from the impact of the pandemic.

Xie called the new project part of the efforts to help Nepal achieve the UN sustainable development goals as early as possible.

“Our role is to bring the partners together, and we started to discuss how we can work together,” Vijaya Singh, assistant resident representative of UNDP Nepal, said at the ceremony.

In the past seven years since its entry into Nepal, the CFRD Nepal Office, greatly involved in the drive toward the sustainable development goals, has implemented 15 projects in 57 of 77 districts in Nepal, benefiting more than 550,000 local people. (Xinhua)