KATHMANDU, June 17 (Xinhua) -- Nepal's currency notes have been printed by a Chinese company for the first time, a Nepalese central bank official said on Friday.
The Chinese state-owned company, China Banknote Printing and Minting Corporation (CBPM), has printed Nepal's new 100-rupee notes which have been brought into circulation from June 12.
"Although we have had currency coins minted in China in the past, it is the first time that any Chinese company printed our currency notes," Chintamani Siwakoti, deputy governor at Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB), the central bank of Nepal, told Xinhua.
The Chinese company got a contract of printing 210 million pieces of Rs100 denominated notes. "We have got delivery of 30 million pieces of notes so far," said Siwakoti. "Our team is departing on Sunday to receive another lot of notes with quantity of 30 million pieces."
Due to the limited storage capacity of Nepal's central bank, it takes delivery of currency notes in different installments and it usually takes around three to six months for complete delivery, according to NRB officials.
"The new notes printed in China have higher quality compared to old ones and are brighter too," said Siwakoti. It was also less costly for Nepal's central bank to print notes in China with additional features, compared to the cost of printing of the same denominated notes in another country in 2012, the official said.
