06 June 2014, Guangzhou, China – Businessmen from Nigeria and China have promised to maintain existing business relationship between both countries through consistent trade promotions and trade facilitation.
The businessmen, who made the pledge at the just concluded China-Nigeria Business and Investment meeting in Guangzhou, China, charged the Federal Government of Nigeria on the need to develop better strategies aimed at balancing trade statistics between both countries.
Addressing participants at the seminar, the Secretary General of the association, Mr. Chuka Jude Onwualu stated that Nigerians who are doing business in various cities in China are eager to move away from buying of finished goods to industrialising the Nigerian economy.
He said, “One of the reasons behind setting up Association of Nigeria Registered Representative Companies and Offices in China, (ANROC) was to balance the statistics of trade between Nigerians and the Chinese. We are aware that the future of China-Nigeria trade relationship would eventually shift from buying finished products to acquiring machineries for production and also purchasing of semi-finished products that will be used as raw materials for the factories.”
Continuing, he said, “Nigeria is on track to becoming one of the 20 largest economies in the world by 2020 and the manufacturing sector is expected to make that possible. According to a Citigroup report published in February 2011, Nigeria will get the highest average GDP growth in the world between 2010–2050, when such Institutions begin to raise reports like this, then something positive is happening.”
Speaking also at the business seminar, a member of ANROC, Mr. Markson said that all attempts made in the past to bring together Nigeria Business Community members in China into a strong and vibrant body was futile.
“All attempts made to organize business communities into one vibrant body fizzled out until we were able to seriously put our heads together to map out an avenue through which Nigeria Business Community could harness the wealth of individual experiences gathered over the years through active participation in the Chinese economy to growing our own economy.
*Vera Samuel Anyagafu & Prisca Sam-Duru – Vanguard
