Chinese Ambassador to Nigeria, Cui Jianchun, affirmed that Nigerian products and commodities will be readily available in the Chinese market within the next few years as efforts between China and Nigeria to make this a reality are yielding. The Ambassador made this disclosure on Saturday 3rd of January 2023 at a temple fair held in Abuja to celebrate the approaching Chinese Lunar New Year, which marks the beginning of the Year of the Dragon in the 12-year cycle of the Chinese Zodiac, set to occur on Feb. 10.
Jianchun highlighted that China, the largest economy in Asia, and Nigeria, a leading economy in Africa with a lot of similarities in culture and strategic knowledge about the international situation and economy. He added that the volume of trade between China and Nigeria had grown in the past few years.
According to him, “China has demonstrated its willingness to give Nigeria and other African countries opportunities to supply their products to its markets.
“This is to support the developing countries to make substantial profits in the spirit of the South-South Cooperation which is an essential component of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI).
“Nigeria is a pilot country for China and Africa to build the joint BRI.
"The 5GIST Nigeria-China GDP Strategy consists of 4 parts, which are 5G, 5l, 5S and 5T.
“5G refers to the 5 Goals of the Strategy, which are political consonance, economic cooperation, military & security collaboration, international coordination, and people’s communication.
“China and Nigeria have been cooperating a lot from infrastructure, ICT, agriculture, mining sector, oil and gas, insurance of banking sectors and also the industry.
“We have done a lot of industrial work here and the most important thing that I would like to let you know is that we are encouraging Nigerians to have more product commodities to be in the Chinese market in the coming five years.”
Before concluding, the Ambassador noted that with adequate arrangements, large products from Nigeria would enter the Chinese market, which would also encourage innovations.
Also at the event, Ja’afaru Yakubu, Chairman, the House Committee on Nigeria-China Relations, expressed his appreciation to the Chinese government for their continuous support to strengthen bilateral relations between the two countries, and he then disclosed that Nigeria would be hosting a spectacular event to celebrate the Chinese New Year temple fair to reciprocate the friendship received from China.
