Minister for
Commerce and
Industry , Engineer
Charles Ugwu, has enjoined the Chinese
Government to give duty-free entry to
Nigerian Products .
Ugwu made the call yesterday, when he received a delegation from the Embassy of the Peoples Republic of
China in
Nigeria , led by the Political Counsellor, Mr
Wang Lei, in his office in
Abuja .
Ugwu said
China is
Nigeria \'s number one
Trading partner, adding that duty-free entry for
Nigerian Products to
China will enable it
Export more of her cassava chips and sesame
Seeds .
A
Press statement signed by
Chief Press Secretary to the Minister,
Udo M.
Akpan, quoted him as saying
Nigeria and
China have a
Long history of friendship and that the two countries have many things in common in the area of politics, economics and trade.
Ugwu called on Chinese
Investors to invest in
Nigeria in the petro-chemicals
Industry , noting that the Chinese
Are very sophisticated in this
Are and very active in the
Plastics Industry .
He said, “you
Are far ahead of other countries in this area. We plead with you to come and invest in petro-chemicals in
Nigeria , because of the abundant
Gas deposit we have in the
Niger Delta region.”
Ugwu said through this
Investment , the Chinese can reach
Out to other ECOWAS countries in the region and assured that
Nigerian Government will create an enabling environment for them.
On the issue of Free Trade Zone that is being planned to take off in
Ogun and
Imo States, the Minister said that his
Ministry will facilitate the process by removing
All the bottlenecks to enable the project to take off. He said that he will take up the matter with the Managing Director of
Nigerian Exports
Processing Zones
Authority . He stated that
Nigerian Government places high
Premium on Chinese
Investments in the country and will do everything possible to encourage them because he wants the trade figure between the two countries to double in the next two years.The Minister said that he will visit
China very soon as he will lead a delegation from the
Ministry to take part in the big trade exhibition that is coming up in
China .The Minister lamented the influx of fake
Products and the issue of counterfeiting, saying the issue of copying brand names and trade
Marks of other
Companies that
Are successful in
Nigeria as if they were original
Products was worrisome. The Minister advised that both countries should set up
Mutual registration of brand names in order to forestall these problems.Earlier in his address, Mr.
Wang sought for the intervention of the
Ministry for the approval for the Free Trade Zone in
Ogun State stating that the Chinese
Company is working in collaboration with
Ogun State Government to set up Free Trade Zone.He said that both countries enjoy very close relationship in Political and Economic spheres including cooperation in Agriculture, Science and
Technology ,
Aviation and
Health .
Wang added that, the volume of Bilateral Trade has increased tremendously from $3.03 Billion to $10.6 Billion. However, he drew the attention of the Honourable Minister to the so called Taiwan Trade Mission in
Abuja which he said was not in conformity with
China Policy and requested that
Nigeria Government should correct the mistake
