Nitish Kumar

Patna, June 3: It is now official. Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar would lead the eight-member delegation to China on an official tour from June 13 to 18. The team would reach Shanghai on June 12 evening.

The delegation is going to China as part of the international exchange programme of the ministry of external affairs. Nitish would be accompanied by his two cabinet colleagues — water resources minister Vijay Kumar Choudhary and tourism minister Sunil Kumar Pintu.

Besides, three senior bureaucrats — development commissioner K. Saha and secretaries in the chief minister’s office S. Siddharth and Aatish Chandra — would accompany him.

The two representatives of the business bodies who would accompany the team are Bihar Industry Association (BIA) president S.P. Sinha and Bihar Chamber of Commerce president O.P. Sah.

“Apart from visiting Shanghai and Beijing, the team members would visit some other provinces during the course of the tour,” a source in the chief minister secretariat told The Telegraph today.

He said the thrust area of the team would be to study the agriculture and irrigation practices in vogue in China and to find out if these techniques could be of any help to Bihar.

“Tourism would be the other area of thrust as China has a good population of Buddhist and Bihar can be projected as a major tourist attraction for such people,” added the official.

The delegation would also study the industry and commerce sector of the China, which has recorded one of the fastest growth rate in world economy.

The non-official members of the China-bound team are very optimistic about the China tour.

“The low cost technology of China can be of great help to a state like Bihar where there is lot of scope for industrial development,” the BIA president said.

He also thanked Nitish for taking two non-government people along with the delegation.

“We are very enthusiastic about the trip,” Sinha said.

This would be for the second time in his second term as chief when Nitish Kumar would be touring a foreign country.

In April, Nitish had undertaken a tour of Bhutan during which he held discussion on issues like hydel power and tourism.