ECOWAS INVITES CHINA TO PARTICIPATE IN REGIONAL FAIR IN 2011

By NBF News

The President of the ECOWAS Commission, His Excellency, James Victor Gbeho, has invited the private sector of the Peoples Republic of China to participate in the sixth ECOWAS Trade Fair scheduled to take place later in the year in order to strengthen the partnership between West Africa's private sector and their Chinese counterparts.

At meetings with senior Chinese officials in the capital Beijing and the Provinces of Wuhan and Sichuan, the President said that their participation would help showcase the business opportunities that can be explored by both sides.

It would also contribute to deepening the economic relations between them. This would make China the first non-ECOWAS Member State to participate in the now biennial fair that enables Member States to showcase their products and help to stimulate intra-Community trade.

The President who is in China at the head of an ECOWAS delegation to mobilise Chinese private sector investment in the development of West African infrastructure and agriculture drew the attention of the officials to the region's vast natural resources.