President Muhammadu Buhari will leave Abuja tomorrow for a working visit
to China aimed at securing greater support from Beijing for the
development of Nigeria’s infrastructure, especially in the power, roads,
railways, aviation, water supply and housing sectors.
President Buhari’s talks with President Xi Jinping, Premier Li Keqiang and
the Chairman of the Standing Committee of the National Peoples’ Congress,
Zhang Dejiang will also focus on strengthening bilateral cooperation in
line with the Federal Government’s agenda for the rapid diversification of
the Nigerian economy, with emphasis on agriculture and solid minerals
development.
It is expected that in the course of the visit, several new agreements
and memorandums of understanding to boost trade and economic relations
between Nigeria and China will be concluded and signed.
The agreements include a Framework Agreement between the Federal Ministry
of Industry, Trade and Investment and the National Development and Reform
Commission of the Peoples’ Republic of China to Boost Industrial
Activities and Infrastructural Development in Nigeria.
Others are a Framework Agreement between the Federal Ministry of
Communications and the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation,
and a Memorandum of Understanding between Nigeria and China on Scientific
and Technological Cooperation.
In keeping with his administration’s prioritization of economic
diversification and industrialisation to boost employment, President
Buhari and his delegation will tour the Shanghai Free Trade Zone and the
Guangzhou Economic and Technological Development Zone to gain more useful
insights and understanding of the policies that underpinned China’s
astronomical economic growth in recent years.
The President, whose entourage will include some state governors as well
as the Ministers of Agriculture, Water Resources, Transport, Defence,
Power, Works & Housing, Industry, Trade & Investment, Federal Capital
Territory, Science & Technology and Foreign Affairs, will also open a
China-Nigeria Business/Investment Forum in Beijing and meet with members
of the Nigerian Community in China before returning to Abuja at the
weekend.