Says $400m trading volume by both countries in 2023 insignificant
The government of Taiwan has made a case for the restoration of bilateral relations with its Nigerian counterpart in order to explore mutually beneficial opportunities across both countries.
Making this suggestion on Friday was Andy Yih-Ping Liu is Chief of Taiwan Mission at the Taipei Trade Office in Nigeria.
The Taiwanese envoy spoke in Lagos, during an interactive session with a section of the media.
Liu, who recalled that he had sent a proposal to President Bola Ahmed Tinubu on how to strengthen the Nigerian-Taiwan relations, noted that the trading value between both countries was $400million in 2023.
“This is not a big amount, compared with China’s $226billion. It will only take about 2% of what the Chinese are trading. But Taiwan’s industrial capability is high quality. We don’t make cheap, inferior products. So it’s not the trade value that means everything, but the quality.
“The quality of our product has been deeply trusted and has been having good comments from the Nigerian traders and industrial companies. So the most important thing for the government is to attract more Taiwanese companies to come to Nigeria to do trading and investment. It’s very important that Nigeria and Taiwan renew the agreement of protection of investment,” he stressed.
The diplomat whose first mission assignment to Nigeria was over 30 years ago during which time he maintained embassy offices in Lagos and Cross River states respectively, emphasised that the previous bilateral agreement was signed in 1994 now needs to be renewed with interest of both countries properly aligned.
“The older version was signed in 1994. It was 30 years ago. So your federal government had already discussed with our mission about two and a half years ago how to renew that. Both sides have negotiated quite extensively, almost finished all the negotiations. Now it needs to be signed by both missions. I would sign on behalf of my government and your mission in Taiwan would sign on behalf of your government. Both sides sign and exchange. That’s it. That means Nigeria is serious enough to attract Taiwanese business people to come to Nigeria to do long-term investment and short-term trading. So we urge your federal government to finalise the signature of the agreement for mutual investment protection. Without that agreement, our people might not have the confidence of the Nigerian government for protecting the investment.”
Pressed further, Liu reiterated that the bilateral relations between both countries can be enlarged and made more attractive.
“The second substantive proposal that I mentioned is to resume the annual governmental negotiation between Nigeria and Taiwan on a permanent secretary level from the federal government because that annual consultation was stopped in 2015 or 2016. We don’t know the reason why it has stopped. So we call for the resume of that annual bilateral.
“Let me take an example of Australia. Australia is Taiwan’s major trading partner in terms of natural resources like coal, liquefied natural gas, iron ore, ore of minerals, and our agricultural product also. Australia and Taiwan, every year we have the permanent secretary level of government negotiation, so that our two sides can benefit from trading and investment. Every year we have three major negotiations between Taiwan and Nigeria. First one, agriculture, second one, minerals and third one, energy. Are these three items the strength of Nigeria? If Australia and Taiwan have already had more than 20 years of annual negotiation in terms of agriculture, energy, and minerals, Nigeria would not be able to benefit from the negotiation with Taiwan.”
The Taiwanese diplomat, who acknowledged that he has received some form of positive feedback from the Ministry of Industry, Trade and Investment thus far, however emphasised that this was still awaiting approval from the government.
“The progress has been made, but it has not yet come to the final signature. Because the Ministry of Industry, Trade and Investment has to consult with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has to consult with the Ministry of Justice. So these three ministries have to have a comprehensive consultation among themselves before the final decision can be made to sign or not to sign, to sign now or next year.
“So we look forward to having your federal government, the three ministries, to be able to finalise their consultation and give us much needed feedback on how to progress with the signing of the agreement. We look very much forward to receiving another positive and final decision from the federal government, but we don’t know now.”
By Ibrahim Apekhade Yusuf and Bola Olajuwon @TheNation
