Category: Diplomatic Channel

Positive reports on Nigerian diplomacy and international relations!

Nigeria & China Trade Value Reaches $12.3 Billion [January-November, 2017]

The Deputy Chinese Ambassador to Nigeria, Mr. Lin Jing, has disclosed that the bilateral trade value between China and Nigeria recorded from January to November 2017 stood at $12.3 billion.

In the words of Mr. Lin:

“The bilateral trade is a very important mechanism to boost our economic relationship.

We do not have the total trade volume for the whole year, but for the total volume from January to November, bilateral trade stood at $12.3 bn.

That represents more than 30 percent of increase compared to the same period of 2016; we believe that by maintaining our normal trade volume, our overall economic relation and cooperation will be boosted and give impetus to our overall relationship.

Nigeria is the biggest Chinese investment destination in Africa, the second largest export market and the third largest trading partner of China in Africa.”

Nigeria and China established formal diplomatic relations in February 1971.

The envoy, however, said both countries, in 2005, established strategic partnerships to promote relations in several areas and enhance continued people-to-people exchanges.

He said such strategic partnership was fostered as a result of Nigeria’s importance to China.

Agreements by both countries following the strategic partnership paved way for Chinese investment and development opportunities in Nigeria.

Lin reiterated the Chinese Government’s commitment to exhaust its efforts to promote development programmes in Nigeria.

Mr. Lin further stated:

“There is also a concept initiated by my ambassador called made in Nigeria with China.

I think this is a very good concept; there are many private investors in China, they have the expertise, experience and surplus industrial capacity.

They need to find the market. All these conditions we will make use of to see whether we can try something successful here.

We have friends in Africa and we want to further cement our friendship and we believe that by supporting each other we are going to have bigger win-win scenario.”

Nigeria and China Trade Value Reaches $10 Billion [Jan-August, 2017]

The Consul General of the Peoples’ Republic of China to Nigeria, Mr. Chao Xiaoliang has disclosed that China-Nigeria bilateral trade volume reached 10 billion USD from January to August 2017, and investment from China reached $2.7 billion dollars.

Mr. Xiaoliang made the statement while giving an update on the Belt and Road Initiative, saying the cooperation has tremendously helped in promoting peace, stability and development of Africa and the world.

According to the CG, Nigeria is China’s strategic partner and this year, 2017, marks 46th anniversary of the establishment of China-Nigeria diplomatic ties. He said the two countries have gained fruitful achievements from this friendly and mutually beneficial cooperation in various facets of the countries’economy. He also said that by deepening China-Nigeria friendly relations, both countries have taken on arduous task of developmental strategies and have maintained very strong corresponding economic complementarities and enormous cooperative potential. He said the cooperation by the two countries have resulted to a win-win result, adding that the benefits of the ‘Belt and Road Initiative’ offers Nigeria an ideal platform and framework to conduct cooperation, not only with China, but with all participating countries. This he said will enable Nigeria obtain more opportunities to strengthen her infrastructure, diversify her economy and integrate with the world economy. He said Nigeria will equally take advantage of the Belt and Road Initiative as a strong driving force to help realise her own development strategy with more initiatives, efficiency, willingness and proper forms of participation.

In the words of Mr. Xiaoliang:

“The Belt and Road Initiative comprises more than physical connections, and aims at creating world’s largest platform for promoting policy, coordination, facilities connectivity, and unimpeded trade, in addition to financial integration and People-to-People bond. Since inception, over 100 countries and international organizations are in this initiative, and over 40 countries have already signed cooperation agreements with China.

Chinese president Xi said China should pursue the Belt and Road Initiative as a priority, give equal emphasis to ‘bringing in’ and ‘going global, follow the principle of achieving shared growth through discussion and collaboration, and increase openness and cooperation in building innovation capacity.

We will expand foreign trade, develop new models and new forms of trade, and turn China into a trader of quality, while adopting policies to promoting high-standard liberalization and facilitation of trade and investment.”

The CG also said that China will develop new ways of making outbound investments and promote international cooperation on production capacity.

He said China will also form globally-oriented networks of trade, investment and financing, production, and services, and build up strengths for international economic cooperation and competition.

The meeting also noted that from 2014 to 2016, a total trade between China and other Belt and Road countries exceeded 3 trillion US dollars and China’s investment in these countries surpassed $50 billion US dollars, detailing that Chinese companies have set up 56 economic cooperation zones in over 20 countries, and have generated 1.1 billion US dollar tax revenue and over 180,000 jobs.

Pakistan Begins Importation Of Nigeria’s LNG

Pakistan has begun the importation of Nigeria’s LNG (Liquefied Natural Gas) as part of efforts to deepen the economic relationship between the two nations.

Pakistan Head of Chancery, Asim Khan in Abuja said that the first consignment of 70,000 metric tonnes of the gas had arrived at Pakistan’s Port Qasim in Karachi.

Khan said that the importation marked the beginning of a major business expansion between Nigeria and Pakistan in the oil and gas sector, adding “in the future, we are expecting much trade in this as well as in other sectors”.

The diplomat said that Pakistan utilised gas heavily for both domestic and generation purposes.

Prior to the commencement of gas importation from Nigeria, Pakistan was importing from Qatar to meet its domestic gas needs.

As the relationship between Nigeria and Pakistan waxes stronger, that country also recently opened scholarship offer for about 50 Nigerians for undergraduate studies in science related courses at some of its higher institutions.

It also announced plans to stage an agricultural equipment and machinery exhibition in Nigeria, to make its technological achievements in agriculture available to Nigerian farmers.

Agricultural machinery expected to be exhibited would include rugged tractors and other equipment that could boost small and medium enterprises growth in Nigeria’s agricultural sector.

Khan had said that Pakistan was determined to assist Nigeria’s efforts for self-sufficiency in food production, adding that the exhibition would be a channel to make durable and efficient farming equipment available to Nigerians at reasonable costs.