Nigerian Experts Envisage Bright Prospects for China-Nigeria Relations

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Friday, July 19, 2002

Nigerian Experts Envisage Bright Prospects for China-Nigeria Relations

The visit of a Nigerian government delegation headed by Vice President Atiku Abubakar to China early this month has brought new impetus to the relations between Nigeria and China.

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The visit of a Nigerian government delegation headed by Vice President Atiku Abubakar to China early this month has brought new impetus to the relations between Nigeria and China.

Trade relations between China and Nigeria have been growing steadily since the establishment of diplomatic ties in 1971 and have witnessed a fast growth since civil-elected President Olusegun Obasanjo took office in May 1999.

Currently, Nigeria is China's second largest trading partner insub-Sahara Africa after South Africa, with the trade volume registering over 1.144 billion dollars in 2001, hitting an all time high. And the latest statistics provided by China's General Administration of Customs show that during the first five months of this year, China-Nigeria trade increased to 459.031 million dollars, up 5.1 percent from the same period of 2001.

Nigerian foreign affairs experts have expounded demographic, cultural, historical, economic and political ties as the variablesthat make the relations and diplomacy between the two countries inevitable and rewarding.

Paul Onuoha, a researcher in politics of the University of Nigeria, said "Nigeria and China have a couple of unifying character in common. First of them all, is their natural advantagein population. With a population estimated at 1.2 billion, China holds as the largest economy in the world. Nigeria on the other hand is the largest market in Africa. It has a population put over120 million, the largest from any black nation."

Both Nigeria and China share a common value to humanity, he said. "Nigeria evolved socially from communalism where everyone was one's brother's keeper."

Onuoha continued "both countries share a common vision in theireconomic history. At a point in time, they operated a closed economy, though this was more profound in China than in Nigeria."

"In the 1960s and 1970s, up till the early 1980s, Nigeria operated state monopoly and nationalized foreign enterprises. She adopted the import substitution industrialization strategy up tillthe early 1990s, which worked against importation and free trade. Today, Nigeria is a free market economy anxious for economic development."

On the other hand, he added, China has adopted the socialist economic system since liberation in 1949.

"National development plans in the early 1950s were directed tocollectivism of resources and production. From 1991, China developed the socialist market economy where by the means of production were owned by the state but managed on market principles for factor efficiency," he said.

"During the past decade, China has opened to foreign trade and investment. At a time it favored a maximum of 25 percent stake in foreign investment, the regulations are relaxing as there are reported to be many foreign wholly-owned corporations in China," he added.

Edward Adefarasi, a renowned scholar in international law in the West African country, believes that the identification of common ground between Nigeria and China, which has been pursued vigorously by both governments within the past three years, is based on formed national interest and means well for both countries. Much of this thinking comes from the series of bilateral agreement signed by the two governments from 2001.

In August 2001, Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo paid a state visit to China. He campaigned for the expansion of relationsbetween the two countries especially on trade frontiers.

The visit was one of the most publicized foreign trips of the president. On his return, the agreements signed by both countries were trumpeted, which included a new memorandum of understanding on cooperation, a new bilateral trade agreement and an agreement for the reciprocal promotion and protection of investment.

As a return, Chinese President Jiang Zemin visited Nigeria lastApril in a clear attempt to further cement the relations between the two countries and create a platform for further development ofthe growing trade between both nations.

As he was hosting his Chinese counterpart, Nigerian President Obasanjo said "we believe there is need for the largest nation of the world to have a relationship with the largest nation of Africa."

During President Jiang's three-day state visit, four agreementswere signed, which were mainly focused on economic and technical cooperation, avoidance of double taxation, medical and health services, and consular matters.

The Chinese leader sealed the agreement with a donation of 30 million RMB (about 3.5 million US dollars) to Nigeria for economicand technical cooperation projects as well as the provision of general goods.

The agreements signed between the two countries, local analystsbelieved, have impacted favorably on the Nigerian-Chinese trade and relations.

Now major Chinese companies are in big-time contracts and tradebusinesses in Nigeria, making big contributions to the economic development of Nigeria.

Recently, officials and experts from the Nigerian Agricultural Sector have visited China to interact with their Chinese counterparts and pursue the initiative for greater bilateral cooperation for agricultural development. China is also expected to share its expertise in land reclamation and dry season farming with Nigeria.

According to the Nigerian experts, there are two strong reasonsfor Nigeria to have good relationship with China.

Being an underdeveloped economy that in relative terms is growing very fast, Nigeria stands to gain from any improved relations. Some argue that it would be easier to woo China into granting favorable trade deals to Nigeria than the big countries in the west or even Japan.

Chinese products are cheaper and for a contracting economy likeNigeria, threatened by inflation and currency devaluation, importsfrom China appear more favorable in dollar terms than those from bigger economies.

"Nigeria has been seeking debt cancellations and improved economic relations with the West but had got little or nothing in return," said Luke Akpova of the Development Research Institute inLagos.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF), which represents the Western capitalism in the economy, had to be sacrificed and since Nigeria cannot go it alone, new partnerships had to be sought. "China appears to represent this new partnership," he underscored.

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