Speech by Mr. Lui Junsheng, Commercial Consul of the Consulate General of the People’s Republic of China in Lagos at the just concluded Sino-German-African Development Cooperation Forum in Lagos.
Distinguished guests,
Dear Friends, ladies and gentlemen,
Good morning!
It’s my great honour and pleasure to join you today for the Sino-German-African Development Cooperation Forum. On behalf of the Consulate General of the People’s Republic of China in Lagos, I would like to take this opportunity to express my thanks to the Organizer; Sino-German Center for Sustainable Development. It’s very nice to have so many friends from Germany, Nigeria and China to meet here today. Thank you very much.
China has always kept a stable healthy and sustainable trade relationship with Nigeria. From January to August this year, bilateral trade has achieved $8.94 billion, an increase of 20.94% year-on-year. In recent years, we can also see remarkable progress in China-Nigeria investment cooperation . Nigeria has become China’s third trading partner and third largest investment destination in Africa.
As we know, Africa is also a youthful and hopeful continent. Nigeria is in the new era and striding forward towards industrialization, integration and modernization. In the past decade, the economy growth has drawn the attention of the international community, even though this slowed slightly in 2015 and 2016. GDP declined 1.6% in 2016. With the Nigeria’s ERGP, changes will come to all areas of Nigeria. According to the forecast from IMF and World Bank, it will grow from 0.8-1.2% this year . The US$ to Naira exchange rate keeping stable around 1:360 in more than 6 months, forex reserve more than $34b, CPI declined to 16%.
During the Johannesburg Summit of the Forum on China –Africa Cooperation in 2015, China announced $60 billion financing support for Africa during 2016-2018, which means more opportunities for developing China-Africa cooperation.
As a good platform, Sino-German-African Development Cooperation Forum will fully play the role of information exchange , projection promotion , comprehensive research and knowledge sharing. Sino-German center for sustainable development will share experience and wisdom of sustainable development. We wish the forum can provide Nigeria with experience and inspirations of sustainable development, and consolidate the friendship between China and Nigeria.
At last, I wish this forum a great success.
I wish Sino-German center for sustainable development will make positive contribution to the cause of Africa’s sustainable development.
I wish the economic and trade cooperation relationship between China and Nigeria will make a better future.
Thank you!
Victor Gotevbe is the Publisher and Editor in Chief of Diplomatic Watch. He is the Managing Director of Conduit Communications Limited.
