By Temitope Ponle
Abuja – More than 3,600 Nigerians have participated in different training opportunities organisned by the Chinese Government in China since 2006.
Mr Zhao Linxiang, Economic and Commercial Counsellor, Embassy of China made this disclosure at a reception for participants of training courses in China in Abuja on Thursday.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) gathered that the training was an offshoot of the strategic partnership established in 2005, to enhance relations and continued people-to-people exchanges.
The envoy said that more than 350 Nigerian officials attended more than 100 seminars in China in 2017.
He added that two local training courses in agriculture and telecommunications were also held in Abuja in 2017.
“This is the first time that we held training courses in Nigeria and both courses enjoyed popularity and have good results.
“This is a new beginning of a new training model, which proves that we can achieve better results through providing more localised courses.”
Zhao recalled that trade and economic cooperation between both countries was “prosperous” with bilateral trade reaching 11.2 billion dollars within the first 10 months of 2017.
He said the figure put the growth rate at 28.5 per cent which made Nigeria China’s third largest trading partner and second export partner in Africa.
He further said that China’s total investment in Nigeria had, so far, reached 2.7 billion dollars.
“A large number of Chinese investors and enterprises are concentrated in Nigeria; their businesses cover various fields.
“According to the Nigeria Bureau of Statistics, our investment in non-oil field is 38.58 million dollars, which is 4.6 times of the year 2016.”
He also said that cooperation between both countries in the area of infrastructure development had deepened.
“In November 2017, a joint venture of three Chinese companies signed the commercial contract of Mambilla Hydro power station; the amount is 5.8 billion dollars which means this is the largest contract signed in two years.”
He added that cooperation in infrastructure would be fulfilled under the framework of the 10 major China-Africa cooperation projects.
He also reiterated the commitment of the Chinese Government to strengthen mutually beneficial cooperation with Nigeria in the areas of agriculture, fishery, petroleum refining, mineral extraction, textile and manufacturing among others.
The envoy further said that forthcoming programmes, which would be held in the course of the year, will strengthen bilateral relations.
He said that the Forum for China-Africa Cooperation summit to be held in September in Beijing would expand cooperation between both countries.
He also added that the China International Import Expo to be held from Nov. 5 to Nov. 10 in Shanghai would present a platform for countries globally to showcase their “country’s images” and carry out international trade.