‘Nigeria, China world’s fastest economies’

China and Nigeria are strategic partners, and the biggest developing countries in the world and Africa respectively, with highly complementary economies and huge potential of pragmatic cooperation, Charge d’Affaires, Embassy of the People’s Republic of China to Nigeria, Mr. Qin Jian, has said.

Speaking during the celebration of the 45th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between both countries, he said China-Africa relations have kept good momentum of overall development in the past decades, with growing political mutual trust and frequent high level exchanges, yielding fruitful economic cooperation and deepening mutual understanding between Chinese and African peoples.

He said in the past, through the joint efforts between our two sides, the political mutual trust between the two countries has enhanced, economic ties forged closer and mutual understanding between our two peoples deepened further.

He said last year, President Xi Jin ping met with President Muhammadu Buhari in New York and Johannesburg respectively where they exchanged views on bilateral cooperation and issues of common concern, reached wide-ranging consensus, and charted the direction of future development of China-Nigeria strategic partnership. “Now Nigeria has become the largest engineering contracting market, the second largest export market, the third largest trading partner and major investment destination of China in Africa for years,” he said.

He recalled that in last November, the country smoothly and successfully got a new cabinet, which is working hard to implement President Buhari’s Agenda of Change. “We congratulate the people of Nigeria on this new development, and wish to embrace the opportunities in its nation building and future advancement. As China and Africa jointly implement the results of Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) Johannesburg Summit, new opportunities of development and prosperity have arisen for both China and Nigeria.”

He also hinted that China has pledged $60 billion in development funding to Africa. The three priorty areas, he stressed, includes improvement of African people’s livelihood and prioritising enhancement of Africa’s capacity for independent development.