…. Commends Nigeria’s Upgrade Among Most Business-Friendly Countries
By Christel Odili
The People’s Republic of China has disbursed over $30bn in funding support to Nigeria and other African countries to drive its cooperation plans on industrialization and agricultural modernization.
The Director, Centre for China Studies, Mr. Charles Onunaiju, said the fund was part of the $60bn pledged by China to African countries during the Forum of China-Africa Cooperation Summit, which held in Johannesburg, South Africa in December 2015.
He stated this at a seminar on Thursday in Abuja with the theme: ‘Nigeria-China relations and the prospects to realize industrial and production capacity cooperation’.
The director explained that the fruits of the Sino-African relations could be seen all over the African continent in the areas of agricultural development, industrialization, transportation and infrastructure development, including rail transport expansion and road construction.
He cited the Abuja-Kaduna standard gauge railway line, which had been completed and already in use, adding that the construction of the Lagos-lbadan-Kano standard gauge was well underway.
Onunaiju said, “President Xi Jinping, at that forum, outlined 10 cooperation plans and provided a funding support of $60bn. More than half of the fund has been disbursed to Nigeria and other African countries.
“Two years after the summit, enormous fruits of the outcome can be seen all over Africa, including the nearly 10,000km Africa’s first electric railway; the nearly 200km Abuja-Kaduna standard gauge railway has been completed and already in use; and the Lagos-lbadan-Kano standard gauge has been inaugurated and construction is well underway.”
The foreign policy expert stated that China-Nigeria relations on industrial and production capacity cooperation offered a unique opportunity to realize Nigeria’s strategic goal of achieving economic diversification and sustainable growth.
While giving his address, The China Ambassador to Nigeria, Dr. Zhou Pingjian China commended Nigeria for its effort at creating a business-friendly environment for investors in the country, noting that the effort has paid off with its recent upgrade by the World Bank in its latest report.
He lauded the Nigeria-China relations and the prospects to realize industrial and production capacity cooperation, said the promotion is an attestation that Nigeria’s business environment policy is taking shape.
He commended the Centre for Chinese Studies (CCS), organizers of the seminar, for bringing relevant stakeholders together and exploiting to the fullest the already flourishing relations between the two countries.
“This seminar could not come at a more opportune time. The 2017 Africa Industrialization Day on November 20 is fast approaching. Nigeria has moved up 24 places to 145th in the World Bank Ease of Doing Business report published the day before Thursday.
“The World Bank also lists Nigeria as one of the top ten reforming economies in the world in 2017. And, as the significance of the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China and its global implications are being assessed in earnest world-wide, a discussion on the impact of the congress on China’s commitment to the industrialization of Africa is apt and helpful,” he said.
Pingjian reiterated China’s commitment to support Nigeria’s industrialization and economic diversification effort of the President Muhammadu Buhari administration.
The ambassador, while stressing that Africa would continue to remain a priority area for China’s international industrial cooperation, said the upcoming FOCAC meeting next year in Beijing would see China given greater attention to Africa and Nigeria.
“The Chinese side is willing to comprehensively advance China-Africa Ten Major Cooperation Plans; push forward the implementation of the ‘Belt and Road’ construction in Nigeria and Africa; support Nigeria in well implementing its Economic Recovery and Growth Plan (ERGP) and support Africa in implementing the Agenda 2063 and the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development,” the ambassador stated.
Earlier in his welcome address, Director, Centre for China Studies, Charles Onunaiju, noted that China-Nigeria relation on industrial and production capacity cooperation offers a unique opportunity to realize Nigeria’s strategic goal of achieving economic diversification.
He said: “For Nigeria and Africa to develop economically on sustainable basis, they would need the infrastructure, capital, technology and market that China offers.