MDGS: NIGERIA, CHINA PARTNER ON DEVT

The Senior Special Assistant to the President on Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) Dr. Precious Gbeneol ,has said it was her desire to partner with China to learn how to fight extreme hunger in Nigeria before the 2015 deadline.

She made this known in Abuja when the Deputy Ambassador  of China paid her a courtesy visit saying when extreme hunger is tackled alongside education, others would follow.

According to her, 'In the next three years, we want to leverage our resources to move forward and we seek to partner with you so that we can learn from how you were able to reduce poverty in your country in spite of the huge population.' Responding, the Chinese Deputy Ambassador Mr. He Meng emphasized that Nigeria and China shared common features such as huge population, vast arable land and rule by colonialist, saying it showed both could benefit from each other's experience even as he said China has brought 300 million people out of poverty.

He said 'China's economic growth is hinged on foreign direct investment, stable government, vast land and high population of 1.3 billion people. These four elements have been explored by the Chinese Communist Party which has been in power for the past 60 years, and its consistency on policy formulation and execution have been pivotal to the success achieved today. Nigeria, which is  the biggest in population in Africa, could learn from that.'

He also revealed that the bilateral trade between Nigeria and China reached a record level of $10.7bn last year, saying such growth in trade between the two countries was a sign of growing mutually beneficiary relationship.