Chinese Foreign Minister Tang Jiaxuan is due in Abuja, Nigeria, on Monday for an official visit that will also take him to Namibia, Zimbabwe, Mozambique and the Seychelles, the official Chinese Xinhua news agency reported.
Tang is the most senior Chinese official to visit Nigeria since Prime Minister Li Peng in May 1997. Tang is expected to discuss the purchase of Nigerian oil and ways to speed up the completion of the rehabilitation of Nigerian Railways, being undertaken by Chinese technicians.
On 30 December, the ‘Post Express’ newspaper quoted President Olusegun Obasanjo as calling for increased trade between both countries. Quoting official statistics, AFP reported that trade stood at US $3.84 million dollars in 1998 but at US $4.86 million in the first 10 months of 1999.
Nigeria is China’s third largest trading partner in Africa, after South Africa and Egypt, AFP reported quoting officials. Some 4,000 Chinese and Chinese-origin live in Nigeria, AFP added, and are engaged in trade, textile, manufacture, iron and steel and medical businesses.
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