The Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, has
called for the signing of the
two Memoranda of Understanding between Nigeria and China in an effort
to boost tourism between the two countries.
The Minister, who made the call in Abuja on Thursday when he received
the Chinese Ambassador to Nigeria, Mr. Chui Jian Chun, on a courtesy
visit to his office, said the two MoU are on the Facilitation of Group
Travels by Chinese Tourists to Nigeria as well as Travel Facilitation
through the Approved Destination Status (ADS).
He said Nigeria, like China, has huge tourism attractions to give
effect to the MoU, adding that if just 1% of the 130 million Chinese
tourists who travel annually comes to Nigeria, that will be 1.3
million tourists, which will be a big boost to tourism in Nigeria.
“There are two MoU between Nigeria and China on the Facilitation of
Group Travels by Chinese Tourists to Nigeria and Travel Facilitation
through the Approved Destination Status (ADS). Though the two MoU date
back to 2019, they have not been signed. It is important that our two
countries work together to negotiate and sign these MoU to promote
tourism between them,” Alhaji Mohammed said.
He recalled that in 2002, Nigeria and China signed a Bilateral
Agreement to encourage cooperation in the field of tourism between
both countries, adding that the Agreement focused mainly on exchange
programmes, human capacity building, joint marketing and investment.
The Minister said though some Nigerian officials received short
training on tourism in China and online, the dearth of skilled
manpower in the tourism sector in Nigeria has made it imperative to
seek more advance capacity building and scholarship programme in
Tourism Statistics and Tourism Satellite Account (TSA), tourism
development, product development among others from the Chinese
government.
He also harped on the need to encourage exchanges between the two
countries in the area of film production, which will avail Nigerian
filmmakers the opportunity to improve on their technical competence in
film-making.
Mohammed commended China for extending its cooperation with Nigeria beyond culture and tourism to infrastructure development in
the country.
He listed the Lagos-Ibadan and Abuja-Kaduna standard gauge rail lines,
which are already in operation, the ongoing work on the Kaduna-Kano
railway, Abuja Light Rail, the upgrade of the Port Harcourt-Maiduguri
narrow gauge, Abuja-Keffi-Makurdi road and the building of new airport
terminals in Abuja, Lagos, Port Harcourt and Kano, among others, as
the ”visible monuments that testify to the warm relations and great
cooperation between the two countries”.
The Minister also lauded the cooperation between the StarTimes of
China and the Nigerian Television Authority, which culminated in the
birth of the Integrated Television Services (ITS), which is the
Federal government-owned signal distributor that is playing a major
role in the Digital Switch Over in Nigeria.
He urged the Chinese Ambassador to facilitate the granting of the
500-million-dollar loan to Nigeria by the China Export-Import Bank for
the execution of three major projects in the public broadcast sector.
“Also worthy of mention, Your Excellency, is the 500-million-dollar
loan which we are seeking from the China Export-Import Bank for three
major projects – the digitization of the NTA, the construction of a
headquarters complex and transmission network for Integrated
Television Services (ITS), a Federal Government-owned signal
distributor that is a major component of the country’s Digital Switch
Over (DSO), and the construction of an ultra-modern Media City in
Ikorodu.
”I want to use this opportunity to appeal to Your Excellency to
continue to use your good offices to
fast-track the evaluation and approval process of the loan by the
China Export Import Bank, and to thank you for your efforts so far in
this regard,” Alhaji Mohammed said.
In his remarks, Ambassador Chui said China is re-strategizing its
bilateral relations with Nigeria to focus on Growth, Development and
Progress.
He said the new strategy, tagged “5 GIST” will be a holistic, complete
and sustained approach to focus on political support, economic
cooperation, security and military collaboration, international
affairs coordination, infrastructure, ICT, industry, investment,
import and export, among others.
The Ambassador said the new focus will be anchored on people-to-people
communication and relationship as well as cultural exchanges.
