The federal government with Chinese company, Messrs Cowang Limited, at the weekend signed a Memorandum of Understanding, MoU, to promote trade and investments in the country. Signing the document on behalf of the Minister, Federal Ministry of Industry, Trade and Investment, Otunba Adebayo, Mrs. Olukemi Arodudu, who is the Director, Investment Promotion Department of the Ministry. She said that Cowang limited is an Asian company that is set to introduce Asian companies that can sponsor major events in Nigeria in exchange of giving the advertisement spaces to showcase their products and services. Olukemi Arodudu, expressed optimism that the signing of the Memorandum would pave profitable paths for the economy of Nigeria.
“This is a good giant stride, given to the fact that there are a lot of Asian companies that the federal government are not aware of their operations in the country. This is a good step, because it is done legally. We would do everything we can to ensure that these investors find their operations easy in the country. Anything that has to do with government agencies, registrations and all we would assist them to make their coming easy.” In his response, President of COWANG, Cong HUI, said the objective of the MoU is for COWANG to partner with the FMITI for the purpose of promoting and attracting Asian Investors into Nigeria and facilitating foreign direct investment in areas such as manufacturing, education, information technology, mining, health, oil & gas and transportation.
He said, “This MoU will promote investments on trade between Asian countries and Nigera, it’s a laudable achievement. Currently, more Asian companies are interested in investments in Nigeria, investing in the medical, agricultural fields. When they come here, what they are interested in is investment in the environment. They need a strong platform to provide some of the environmental assessment and analysis report and even in areas of business and security. After the signing of this MoU we will try to build a platform between Nigeria and Asian countries to help to build a strong platform to provide necessary commercial service to the Asian companies, to guarantee the proper landing of investments in the country.”