November 10, 2011


Nigeria and China are set to form stronger ties as both countries, on Wednesday, agreed to explore making Nigeria a major manufacturing zone for China's key industrial enterprises, according to reports from the Vanguard.

Mr. Weng Jieming, the director of Chongqing Liangjing New Area, a multifaceted manufacturing industry, said apart from encouraging Chongqing to export their goods to Nigeria, the government also has plans to “support the companies, especially in the motorcycle and automobiles industry, to make direct investments in Nigeria for local production."

Chongqing has five key industries, including automobiles and motorcycles, petroleum and natural gas, equipment manufacture, new materials and high-tech industry, which have key investments in many countries in the world, according to the Vanguard.

Minister of Trade and Investment, Dr. Olusegun Aganga, paid a visit to Chongqing, one of the major industrial cities in Southwest China and the site of China’s major Free Trade Zones, which contributes about 20 per cent of the nation’s Gross Domestic Product.

In a meeting with his counterpart at the Ministry of Commerce, China, Mr. Fu Ziying, Aganga encouraged the collaboration between the two countries, saying it will correct the trading imbalance and create more job opportunities for Nigerians.

Aganga said that Nigeria provided both raw materials and a ready consumer base for Chinese goods, adding that the move was in line with President Jonathan's economic transformation plans for the country.

“It makes economic sense for Chinese companies to come and manufacture in Nigeria because Nigeria is strategic, it has the market and raw materials. We would also focus on backward integration so that other industries can spring up and the value chain strengthened,” Aganga told Jieming on Wednesday.

Meanwhile, the Federal Government and the Chinese government have agreed to ensure that the Lekki Free Trade Zone commences full operation in 18 months, the Vanguard reported.

Mr. Zhao Guangfa, the president of China Railway Construction Corporation Limited, during a meeting with Aganga on Tuesday night, also asked that the FG remove hindrances to the progress of the Lekki Free Trade Zone project, adding that other countries had successfully completed similar projects.

A committee, made up of representatives of the Federal Ministry of Trade and Investment, the Lagos State Ministry of Commerce and CRCC, has been asked to review the underlying project in order to see it completed between 12 and 18 months.

“The LFTZ is a project that will attract significant Foreign Direct Investment into Nigeria and plug the unemployment gap considerably,” Guangfa said.

http://www.channelstv.com/global/news_details.php?nid=30101&cat=Business

Mind boggling to me that 20% of China's GDP can come from its FTZs.

Will be good to see this Lekki FTZ take off.

“support the companies, especially
in the motorcycle and automobiles industry,
to make , "

Rubbish!! Automobile manufactured by our indigenous company is not an ' automobile'. It becomes one only when it was manufactured by Chinese.
Aganga is working :/
He should refund that money he used to Fly over to China.
Aganga my nyashh !!
Chinese shiit!

China and Japan have roughly the same GDP. The difference is that China is a gigantic factory where many things are made and Japan is a big science lab where many things are invented.

Hmm. There are more differences than that, lol. Also, what has Japan invented lately. . .? Genuinely curious and asking out of ignorance, not a leading question.

ekt_bear:

Mind boggling to me that 20% of China's GDP can come from its FTZs.

Will be good to see this Lekki FTZ take off.

Amazing isn't it? I think Nigeria can learn from this, but we have to get the electricity problem sorted out.

Only the Chinese option of a joint venture for any investment will satisfy me. That was one of the ways they were able to steal knowledge and technology from the western investors. The same way the asian tigers raised them up is the same way they are coming here but we should not let them have their way without gaining things from them. No be only employment Nigerian need abeg.

Aigbofa:

Amazing isn't it? I think Nigeria can learn from this, but we have to get the electricity problem sorted out.

Yep. Frikking insane. They have a 6 trillion dollar economy. And I am sure that all of those FTZs land area wise are not up to Ekiti State.

Really shows the power of industrialization and free trade, I think.

ekt_bear:

Hmm. There are more differences than that, lol. Also, what has Japan invented lately. . .? Genuinely curious and asking out of ignorance, not a leading question.

List of Japan companies
http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_companies_of_Japan

many of these companies invent things that most people use all over the world. Sony invents the PS4 in Japan and then they will manufacture in China and you will buy it in Nigeria. Most of the profit will go to Japan and China will make a small profit per unit made and by making many units they will get as much money as Japan.

Ah, ok. Hmm. I guess we are using "invention" differently. PS4 is just another video gaming system, i don't really consider this an invention.

But I see your point, and agree with it.

China and their technology , i dont buy their products always inferior

China makes good products.its just naija business men who who tell chonese companies to make inferior quality stuff so as to make more money,

chinese products are of international standard, they build vessels (ships) trains, space ships,desktops of hp etc & you think their products are inferior, how did they pass international standard.i agree with the earlier comment that nigerian business men influence the inferior products from china.

I also agree with you china products are good. Have you bought any directly? I dont mean from nigerians, i think you do from these online sites or there in china and you will be happy u did

u think chinese products were made with goodluck, no.there must be a govt policy to achieve these.

kunlekunle:

u think chinese products were made with goodluck, no.there must be a govt policy to achieve these.

lol

Off-point but funny

Much said

strike a deal with China is like striking a deal with the devil.

No wahala

well this is good development and welcome news if properlyhanddled, they just realised that labour would be cheaper here in 9ja lol

Not again.Chinese company are nt particularly gud at payg gud salaries,gud workg conditn and gud human rights record.I Rada prefer america/german/british coy make nigeria their manufacturing hub.As an engineer,l can tel u dat d chinese are using reversed engineering principle to acheive whateva they do and dat is same as copy cat.Rada than bring in chinko and thier low quality goods,govt shd encourage our local industry to spring up by providg them wit incentives.Luk at PAN,hw many govt official uses it,they rada buy d camry's of dis world.infact,govt is d problem of nigeria.

what i cant understand is why the nigerian govt can not give the same level of assistance to indigenous nigerian manufacturers - igbos are very good at manufacturing and production -why isnt the govt boosting local manufacturing by giving them similar incentives- why give such a big helping hand to these chinese people?

if our local manufacturers are incentivised this will gradually wean us off foreign imports, which can only be a good thing.

free trade zones are just another way for multinationals and other foreign owned businesses  to ship jobs to countries where they can exploit indigenous cheap labour, countries where labour laws are non existent and whose govts are not looking out for the welfare of their people but for their own personal welfare.

many of the corporations who operate under these free trade zones do so on the condition that they dont have to pay tax and are not subject to trade tarrifs, they can also get away with subjectign their workers to the most inhumane working conditions.
they have similar free trade zones in various so called third world countries around the world like haiti, indonesia, malaysia, thailand - their workers work and live in terrible conditions and earn a pittance but this goes on largely because their govts collaborate with the multinationals that operate there.

Once you look closely you begin to understand who is really benefitting from this set up.

the chinese set up these sweat shops where they employ nigerians and use them like donkeys paying them starvation wages and then to add insult to injury these same products are used to flood domestic nigerian markets putting indigenous manufacturers out of business - why is this a good idea?

kings112:

China and their technology , i dont buy their products always inferior

i totally agree, many british businesses have outsourced their manufacturing sectors to china and you can see the difference in qualijty between products which were previously manufactured in britain and the ones that are now being manufactured in china - the chinese products are pure substandard trash - the UK businesess are now only interested in making huge profits and dont care about quality so they ship all their manufacturing sector to the chinese who use slave labour to produce these goods. these chinese slaves will work for 10 cents an hour because they have no other choice.

this is one of the reasons why unemployment is rising in the western world - all of these jobs are now being done by slave labourers in china, indonesia, thailand, malaysia and now nigeria.

@22naira

Off-point but funny

why is my comment off point.

years back chineses products were like ibo made. (inferior).
to be acceptable internationally, their govt had to make laws on productions and manufacturing.
products were made of international standards with strict regulations.
that is why they are here today

cap28:

i totally agree, many british businesses have outsourced their manufacturing sectors to china and you can see the difference in qualijty between products which were previously manufactured in britain and the ones that are now being manufactured in china - the chinese products are pure substandard trash - the UK businesess are now only interested in making huge profits and dont care about quality so they ship all their manufacturing sector to the chinese who use slave labour to produce these goods. these chinese slaves will work for 10 cents an hour because they have no other choice.

this is one of the reasons why unemployment is rising in the western world - all of these jobs are now being done by slave labourers in china, indonesia, thailand, malaysia and now nigeria.

Just thought I should argue with you on some of your point, the bit you said China makes substandard trash is not entirly tru as the Uk still have quality control ie almost all the batteries in smart phones are manufactured in china and brouht back to the EU to sell thats one no come to think of it wont it be nice for teh chinese to bring the same slave labour ideology to Nigeria?however you frame it labour is slavery when you dont get paid,Now the moral of this point is its beter or ithink its better for 20 milion Nigerians youths to work and earn a basic N20K rather than 10milion youths work and earn 50K.DOnt you see the structure of employment here in teh Uk people who are realy down to get thier hands dirty and start from the scratch aint complaining of employments but those who r rooted into one sector are.

Just because it is made in china, doesnt mean it is substandard

Just because it is made in china, doesnt mean it is substandard