China to give soft loan to rebuild quake-hit Nepal's airport at Pokhara

China will provide millions of dollars in soft loan to Nepal to rebuild its International Airport at Pokhara which was devastated by last year's earthquakes, officials said on Wednesday.

The Export-Import Bank of China did not reveal the size of the loan to Nepal's finance ministry, but said on Wednesday that it would cover the parking apron, terminal and control tower.

Earlier, Nepal officials fixed the loan amount at around $216 million.

The airport reconstruction was one of the 10 agreements signed during Nepalese Prime Minister K P Sharma Oli's meeting with his Chinese counterpart Li Keqiang two days ago.

The project will encourage tourists to visit Nepal and make life easier for locals, state-run Xinhua new agency quoted the official of the bank as saying.

The airport project will also allow for more trade between China and Nepal, it said.

Nearly 9,000 people were killed in last year's devastating twin-earthquakes in April and May in Nepal and its largest cities like Kathmandu and Pokhara were the worst-hit.

The Chinese government-backed Exim Bank has financed more than 1,000 projects in 49 countries last year with outstanding loans up 46% from the beginning of 2015 to 520 billion yuan (nearly $80 billion) at the end of the year.

Oli is on a week-long visit to China since March 20. The 10 agreements signed during his talks with Li included the land mark transit treaty to reduce the landlocked Himalayan country's dependence on India.