Rita Okoye
Over the weekend, the People’s Republic of China celebrated her 70th-anniversary, which was ushered in with a grand reception at the glamorous Oriental Hotel, Victoria Island, Lagos, Nigeria.
The celebration in Nigeria was to further strengthen the bilateral relationship between China and Nigeria as it had brought economic development.
Speaking on behalf of Mr. Rui’e, the Chairman of Chinese Community in Nigeria, Mr Eric Ni said China and Nigeria had ties which has translated into mutual economic success as the two countries have a lot to do in future so they need to support one another.
He said that, “the Chinese community is celebrating China’s 70 years of existence and 59 years of Nigeria’s independence. We support children’s education through scholarship in six states, five students get through university from each state will get 50,000 naira as grant every year.
“We also use that as an avenue through which we encourage cultural exchange between Nigeria and China via the schools. We support 14 students in those schools with scholarship, every September 19. For the past five years we have supported 500 children with 20,000 naira each, ten winners went home with 100,000 naira each, another batch of ten went home with 50,000 naira, the other ten got 30,000 naira.”
Commenting on the bilateral relationship between Nigeria and China with regards to ease of doing business, especially technology related areas he said, “we are like one family, we are part of Nigeria we want the government to improve on our economy, security to make this country good for us to invest.
“Chinese nationals here spent a lot to come to Nigeria, I have many Nigerians working in my factory, the most of the workers in CCECC are Nigerians, we want more businesses because China also have a very huge population,we have some Chinese nationals here with work and stay visa.”
Collaborating with Mr. Ni, the Nigerian Minister for Trade and Investment, Otunba Niyi Adebayo added that Nigerian government is always ready to support genuine investment.
“We are giving them the assurances that this government is out to support genuine businessmen, who want to invest in Nigeria.
“Nigeria will continue to maintain good bilateral relationship between China and USA regardless of what’s going on.”
The event which had lots of entertainment ranging from dance, Kung Fu, Karate and more was honoured by Chinese top government officials, Nigerian dignitaries, Nollywood celebrities and other well-wishers.
