Nepali Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala's four-day official visit of India added a new dimension in expanding the centuries-old social, cultural and economic ties between Nepal and India.

The visit that concluded on Friday also helped enhance mutual goodwill, understanding and confidence between the two countries.

Prime Ministers of the two countries agreed to further strengthen and deepen the Nepal-India ties founded on the principles of peaceful co-existence, regional integrity, mutual respect and understanding and to further the relation, during the visit.

India agreed to provide 16 billion Nepali rupees (228.57 million U.S. dollars) as an immediate budgetary support to the Nepali government in view of the crisis-ridden economic situation of Nepal due to a decade-long conflict.

Likewise, India agreed to provide a soft credit loan of 100 million U.S. dollars for the execution of infrastructure development projects as prioritized by the Nepali government.

The agreement to enhance India's "Aid to Nepal" budget for the current Nepali fiscal year (July 16, 2005-July 15, 2006) from 1.04 billion Nepali ruppes to 2.4 billion Nepali rupees annually was also one of the major achievements of the visit.

Similarly, the agreement by India to waive the dues outstanding as on date owed by the Nepali government to the Indian government on account of defense purchases and to grant exemption to all exports of goods manufactured in Nepal into India from the 4 percent Additional Duty of Customs were also the positive aspects of the visit.

In a similar manner, the provision of India providing a support of 25,000 metric tons of fertilizers to Nepal at subsidized prices, accelerating the release of all funds to Nepal under the Duty Refund Procedure Scheme and doubling the number of scholarships provided by the government of India for Nepali students could be taken as other concrete achievements of Koira's visit.

India also agreed to expedite long-term mega infrastructure projects like roads, railway, border infrastructures, water resources, construction of a pipeline for the supply of fuel, establishment of Special Economic Zone and improvement of airports.

This was the first time that India has provided cooperation to Nepal in such a big volume, a senior Nepali journalist who was included in Koirala's delegation told Xinhua.

"No donor country has so far provided such level of open- hearted support to Nepal in its history," Sharachchandra Bhandary, the senior reporter of the government-owned National News Agency of Nepal, told Xinhua.

The Ministers and the business community who accompanied Prime Minister Koirala during his visit have also done other constructive work for the benefit of Nepal on an individual and group basis.

They separately called on Indian Commerce Minister Kamal Nath, Indian Minister for Civil Aviation Praful Patel, Finance Minister P. Chidambaram and Minister for Agriculture Ram Vilas Paswan, and held important talks for promotion of Nepal's trade and business.

Through the visit, India agreed to support Nepal in its candidature for the non-permanent seat to the United Nations Security Council, to allow unhindered access in India to Nepali vehicles, and to enter into an aviation agreement immediately for increasing the number of seats made available for the Nepali airlines from 2,800 to 6,000 seats per week.

Meanwhile, economists and foreign policy experts have said that Koirala's visit had opened up doors for economic development and that that would lead the country towards peace and democracy.

"The accomplishments are historic for Nepal's economy," Chandi Raj Dhakal, president of the Federation of Nepalese Chambers of Commerce and Industry, the largest non-government federal organization, said at an interaction program on Sunday.

The former general secretary of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation, Yadav Kant Silwal, pointed out that the visit became fruitful because it had focused on economic issues.

"India's assurances to help Nepal in peace building, democracy and economic sector have raised hope for sustainable peace in Nepal," Silwal said.

Another positive thing was India's acceptance of UN role for peace in Nepal, he added.

Source: Xinhua