Nepal
(尼泊爾)
Situated in the lap of the Himalayas, Nepal is located
between the latitude 26*22' to 30*27' North and longitude 80*4' E to 88*12'
East, and elevation ranges from 90 to 8848 meters. The average length being
885 km east to west and the average breadth is 193 km from north to south.
The country is bordering between the two most populous countries in the
world, India in the East, South, and West, and China in the North. Nepal is
a land locked country and home place of natural beauty with traces of
artifacts. The Northern range (Himalayas) is covered with snow over the year
where the highest peak of the world, the Mount Everest, stands. The middle
range (Hill) is captured by gorgeous mountains, high peaks, hills, valleys
and lakes. Southern range (Terai) is the gangaitic plain of alluvial soil
and consist of dense forest area, national parks, wildlife reserves and
conservation areas. The temperature and rainfall differ from place to place.
In the geographic diversity and varied climatic conditions 23.2 million
people of more than 60 caste/ethnic groups are accommodated in the country.
Nepal presents an example of being united in diversity over the history and
has maintained it's pride as being an independent sovereign state. There is
constitutional monarchy where people exercise right of adult franchise. The
executive, legislative and judiciary bodies function and exercise their
rights independently. There is two tier system of legislation, the upper
house, called the Rastriya Sabha, consists of 60 members and the Lower
House, called the Pratinidhi Sabha is the house of Representatives for which
members are elected from 205 electoral constituency distributed in 75
districts of the country. The elected Prime Minister heads the government.
Geographically, the country is divided in three regions; Mountain, Hill and
Terai accommodating 7.44 and 49 % of the population respectively. Based on
area of districts these regions constitute 35, 42 and 23% of the total land
area. There are 5 development regions and 75 administrative districts.
Districts are further divided into smaller units, called Village Development
committee (VDC) and Municipality.
Currently, there are 3914 VDCs and 58 Municipalities in the country. Each
VDC is composed of 9 wards, Municipality ward ranges from 9 to 35. Kathmandu
is the capital city.There are number of peaks, rivers and lakes in the
country.
Nepal is the member of the United Nations and has established diplomatic
relation with 113 (Jun 2001) countries of the world. Major export
commodities are paste, Pulses, oil Cake, Catechu, Jute good Sacking, Twins,
Carpets (Hand knitted wollen), Readymade garments, handicrafts, ginger.
Economic growth of the country has not improved markedly over time to over
take population growth. As the country estimated population growth is 2.3
per annum, the gain achieved by developmental activities has been concealed
by growing population. Little over half (57%)of the population of working
age reported economically active in 1991 and among them 81% were engaged in
agricultural activities. Contribution of non-agricultural activities are
gradually increasing in the GDP. Per capita GDP is estimated in the order of
US $ 240 (preliminary estimate) for 2000/01. The currency is Nepalese Rupee.
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