NIGERIA: China's President Hu Jintao strengthens business ties with Africa on a visit to Nigeria

Record ID: 236484

  • Title: NIGERIA: China's President Hu Jintao strengthens business ties with Africa on a visit to Nigeria
  • Date: 28th April 2006
  • Summary: CHINESE PRESIDENT HU JINTAO ADDRESSING JOINT NATIONAL ASSEMBLY ASSEMBLY MEMBERS LISTENING CHINA DIPLOMATIC CORP NIGERIAN AUDIENCE HU WAVING TO THE ASSEMBLY HU LEAVING
  • Embargoed: 13th May 2006 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Nigeria
  • Country: Nigeria
  • Topics: International Relations,Energy
  • Reuters ID: LVA5NFLJFB0TBREWAR0QUZ21S1AC
  • Story Text: China's economic alliance with Nigeria received an added boost on Thursday (April 27) as China took investments in Nigeria's oil and refining sectors a step further and called for a "strategic partnership" with Africa.
    Following announcements of a 4 billion U.S. dollar investment in the oil and refinery sector, China's President Hu Jintao added a new political dimension to a growing economic partnership.
    In a speech to Nigerian lawmakers, Hu underlined China's respect for African independence and sovereignty, which analysts said was a deliberate contrast with the United States' interventionist diplomacy under George W. Bush, calling on Africa to seize the opportunity and forge a new strategic partnership.
    Hu made the address during a two-day state visit to Africa's top oil producer and most populous nation - the latest stop on a world tour that includes the United States, Saudi Arabia, Morocco and Kenya.
    Under the oil deal, Nigeria will give first right of refusal to state-run China National Petroleum Corp. (CNPC) on four oil exploration blocks at an auction next month. China will buy a controlling stake in Nigeria's 110,000 barrel-a-day Kaduna oil refinery and build a power station.
    "Now they (Chinese government) have agreed even to help take some percentage in the Kaduna refinery. If the Kaduna refinery can be put in place to function a hundred percent, it will help to reduce scarcity of fuel and then we have increase (in productivity)," said the co-ordinator of the Nigeria-China business forum, Matthew Uwaekwe.
    China's latest campaign in Africa is built on an unprecedented business boom, driven by China's increasing hunger for raw materials -- particularly oil -- to power a market-driven economy growing at over 9 percent per year.
    Nigeria agreed to give China the four oil exploration licences in exchange for a commitment to invest about 4 billion U.S. dollars in refining and power generation in Nigeria, in one of seven deals signed on Wednesday (April 26).
    Analysts said Hu's offer of an alternative to the United States' prescriptive foreign policy and "War on Terror" would be welcomed by African leaders, while they also said China's investments would help development in Nigeria.

    INTERNATIONAL TRADE TREATIES AND AGREEMENTS ECONOMICS
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
  • Copyright Notice: (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2014. Open For Restrictions - http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp
  • Usage Terms/Restrictions: None
Register