China assures of continuous support for Nigeria’s growth, development
The Chinese government has given assured of their continued support for Nigeria’s economic growth and development.
The Consul General of the Peoples Republic of China to Nigeria, Chu Maoming who gave this assurance, at the Chinese 70th anniversary celebration in Lagos, cited the resolve of the government of China to continue to work towards bolstering bilateral relations between it and Nigeria.
Speaking on the celebration, Maoming said, “today we are here to celebrate the Chinese traditional mid-autumn festival and the founding 70th of the People’s Republic of China, the bilateral relations between China and Nigeria have brought about economic development.”
He also said that in an attempt to improve the cultural affinities between the two countries, a Kongfu show performance was staged reflecting China’s way of life.
“We have supported each other in economic, political and social aspects and for about five years, Chinese troupe have been going round Nigerian schools to perform in other for cultural exchange which stand to strengthen ties.
“We hope we could promote the culture exchange between China and Nigeria to a new high,” Maoming said.
Giving assurances of Nigeria’s determination to continue to seek closer ties with China, the Nigerian Minister for Trade and Investment, Otunba Niyi Adebayo told newsmen that the Nigerian government was poised to support genuine investment from China and other countries of the world.
The Minister who was a guest at the event said, “We are giving them the assurances that this government is out to support genuine businessmen, who are willing to invest in the country.”
Also speaking, the Chairman of Chinese Community in Nigeria, Mr. Eric Ni said China and Nigeria had ties which have translated into mutual economic success as the two countries have a lot to do together in future, so they need to support one another.
He said that, “the Chinese community is celebrating China’s 70 years of existence and 59 years of Nigeria’s independence, we have also been supporting children’s education through scholarship in six states and five students to get through university from each state will get 50,000 naira as grant every year.
“We also use that as an avenue through which we encourage cultural exchange between Nigeria and China via the schools, we also support 14 students in those schools with scholarship, every September 19, for the past five years we have supported 500 children with 20,000 naira each, ten winners went home with 100,000 naira each, another batch of ten went home with 50,000 naira, the other ten got 30,000 naira.”
Commenting on the bilateral relationship between Nigeria and China with regards to ease of doing business he said, “We are like one family, we are part of Nigeria we want the government to improve on our economy, security to make this country good for us to invest.
“Chinese nationals here spent a lot to come to Nigeria, I have many Nigerians working in my factory, the most of the workers in CCECC are Nigerians, we want more businesses because China also have a very huge population, we have some Chinese nationals here with work and stay visa.”
“I know many other Chinese nationals want to invest in Nigeria. We will continue to maintain good bilateral relationship with both countries,” Mr. Ni said.
