President Muhammadu Buhari has arrived Beijing, the People’s Republic of China to participate in the 7th Summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation
Tag: china
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Photos: Buhari off to China for summit
President Muhammadu Buhari on Friday departed Abuja for China to participate in the 7th Summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) scheduled to hold September 3 – 4, 2018 in Beijing.
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SON to schools: China made materials cause cancer
Standards Organisation of Nigeria (SON) has warned importers of school uniform materials to Nigeria from China based companies, Sing Shun Fat School Clothier Company and Zenith Uniform Company, about cancer causing substances found in the materials.
Spokesman for SON Osita Aboloma said the 4- amino azo dyes, which were found in school uniforms in Hong Kong, contained up to 173 milligrams and 41 milligrams per kilogram of the tested samples, which were well above the maximum allowed in the standard.
He said: “The 4-amino azo dyes have been banned in Europe, Japan and other parts of the world prior to the finding.
“They can release carcinogenic substances known as aromatic amines when they mix with sweat, which accounted for the ban on the use of the dyes in many countries.
“Importers of school uniform materials in Nigeria should endeavour to undergo the process of conformity assessment of such materials prior to import, through the SON off shore conformity assessment programme, SONCAP, in order to avoid bringing these products to the country.”
Aboloma advised Nigerians to report suspected uniform materials that may already be in the country to SON for sampling, laboratory tests and analysis to be carried out at its Textile and Leather Laboratory in Kaduna for regulatory action.
International Accredited Firms (IAFs) undertaking the off-shore conformity assessment programme on behalf of the SON, all over the world, have been put on alert regarding the cancer-causing substance in school uniform materials and other clothing materials to be imported into Nigeria.
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Buhari departs for China Friday to attend FOCAC
*To discuss infrastructure financing with President Jinping
President Muhammadu Buhari will on Friday depart for China to participate in the 7th Summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) scheduled to hold September 3 – 4, 2018 in Beijing.
A statement by the Senior Special Assistant on Media and publicity, Garba Shehu, said that the President’s first engagement in Beijing will be an interactive session with the Nigerian Community in China at the Nigerian Embassy.
He added “Before the formal opening of the FOCAC Summit, President Buhari in his capacity as current Chair of ECOWAS, is expected to deliver remarks at the High-Level Dialogue between Chinese and African leaders, business representatives and African entrepreneurs.”
Buhari is also scheduled to join President Jinping and other African leaders for the opening and roundtable sessions of the 2018 FOCAC Beijing Summit under the theme: “Towards an even Stronger China-Africa Community with a shared Future.”
After the FOCAC Summit, President Buhari will hold bilateral meetings with President Xi Jinping and Prime Minister Li Keqiang to discuss infrastructure financing for strategic projects in Nigeria and the upgrading of Nigeria-China relations “from strategic partnership to comprehensive strategic partnership.”
The President will also use the occasion of his audience with the Chinese leadership to assess the progress made so far in Chinese interventions in Nigeria’s key priority infrastructure projects, particularly on-going projects in the railway and power sectors.
“It is noteworthy that since the last FOCAC VI Summit in Johannesburg, South Africa in December 2015 – the first attended by the Nigerian leader – and his successful State visit to China in April 2016, the current administration has pushed forward practical cooperation with China in the areas of infrastructure construction, trade, investments, finance, power, agriculture, education cooperation, among others.
“It would be recalled that President Buhari has consistently acknowledged Chinese support for infrastructure development in Nigeria.”
The statement recalled that in January 2018 while receiving the Board of Directors of the Nigeria Economic Summit Group, the President had said: ‘‘We send our gratitude to the Chinese for all their support to Nigeria. Since independence, no country has helped our country on infrastructural development like the Chinese. In some projects, the Chinese help us with 85 percent payment, and soft loans that span 20 years. No country has done that for us.’’
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President Buhari will be accompanied to Beijing by his wife, Aisha, who is scheduled to participate in a Spouses’ Programme on China-Africa at the Great Hall of the People, under the theme, ‘‘Joining Hands for a Future of AIDS.’’
Also on the President’s entourage are Governors Mohammed Abdullahi Abubakar, Akinwunmi Ambode, Mohammed Badaru Abubakar and Rochas Anayo Okorocha of Bauchi, Lagos, Jigawa and Imo States respectively.
Others are Senators Abdullahi Adamu, George Akume, Godswill Akpabio and Aliyu Wamakko representing Nasarawa, Benue, Akwa Ibom and Sokoto States respectively.
Also accompanying the President are: the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Geoffrey Onyeama; Minister of Transport, Rotimi Amaechi; Minister of Power, Works and Housing, Babatunde Fashola; Minister of FCT, Muhammad Bello; Minister of Industry, Trade and Investment, Okechukwu Enelamah; Minister of Budget and National Planning, Udoma Udo Udoma; Minister of Water Resources, Suleiman Adamu; Minister of State, Petroleum Resources, Ibe Kachikwu, and Minister of State, Aviation, Hadi Sirika.
Others are the National Security Adviser, Babagana Monguno; the Director General, National Intelligence Agency, Ahmed Abubakar; and the Group Managing Director, NNPC, Maikanti Baru.
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UK foreign minister attacks Google over ‘child abuse content’
British Foreign Minister, Jeremy Hunt, accused Google ( GOOGL.O ) on Thursday of abandoning its moral values by failing to remove child abuse content while launching a version of its search engine in China that will block some websites.
The government has repeatedly criticised online platforms such as Twitter, YouTube and Facebook for failing to remove abusive material or sexual content posted online even after they were notified.
“Seems extraordinary that Google is considering censoring its content to get into China but won’t cooperate with UK, U.S. … in removing child abuse content,” Hunt said on Twitter.
“They used to be so proud of being values-driven.”
Alphabet’s Google plans a search engine in China that will block some search terms and websites, two sources told Reuters earlier this month, in a move that could mark its return to a market it abandoned eight years ago on censorship concerns.
Google declined to comment on Hunt’s remarks.
Britain, the U.S., Australia, Canada and New Zealand invited major technology companies to attend a meeting on tackling child abuse and extremism on their websites, but the firms declined to attend, the Daily Mail reported on Thursday.
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Google did offer to send an executive to the conference but the offer was not taken up, a source at the company said.
In January, Prime Minister Theresa May used an address at the World Economic Forum in Davos to say investors should use their financial power to force internet firms into taking more responsibility for stopping militants and pedophiles using their platforms.
Google, which quit China’s search engine market in 2010, has been actively seeking ways to re-enter China where many of its products are blocked by regulators.
Leading human rights groups, including Amnesty International, have urged Google not to bow to censorship demands in China because by doing so, they allege, the company would be complicit in the repression of freedom of speech.
Search terms about human rights, democracy, religion and peaceful protests will be among the words blacklisted in the search engine app, which The Intercept website said had already been demonstrated to the Chinese government.
The project is code-named “Dragonfly” and has been under way since the spring of 2017, the news website said.
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Africa has chosen China – Burkina Faso president
Burkina Faso will strengthen cooperation with China in all areas as Africa-China relations develop for mutual benefit, President Roch Kabore said.
Kabore, whose country resumed diplomatic ties with Beijing in late May, will pay a state visit to China from Thursday to Sept. 5, during which he will also attend the Beijing Summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation.
“For us, this trip is an important mission as it will help build up and consolidate the two countries’ relationship, which is founded on win-win, legal and transparency principles,” Kabore said in an exclusive interview with Xinhua.
The president said it will also help the two sides select priorities and see how they can make headway together.
“We expect to reinforce cooperation with China in all areas,” he said, expecting a partnership “as broad as possible.”
As for China’s relations with all of Africa, Kabore said Africa-China cooperation is based on the principles of mutual benefit, equal opportunity and the need to develop international trade.
“We don’t have any regrets about this existing China-Africa cooperation, which is developing day by day in favor of our respective peoples,” he said.
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“Africa has chosen China … It is our choice and we stick to that.”
He said Africa can learn from China’s success in developing into the second largest economy in the world, and the China-championed notion of building a community with a shared future for mankind will promote Africa-China ties.
Kabore called the China-proposed Belt and Road Initiative a “sound initiative” intended to develop infrastructure links and boost trade between different countries.
“I think it is an initiative that should be supported,” he said, adding that it will probably take some time but is an initiative “which is necessary if we want to develop international trade.”
Regarding the rising protectionism and unilateralism in the world, the president said the upcoming China-Africa summit “shows the interest of multilateralism.”
“This is what we have always defended together because protectionism in our current times raises problems as it is a real threat to international and world peace,” he said.
“Therefore, the holding of this summit is a real success as we tell supporters of protectionist policies that we have opted for multilateralism.”
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Trump blames China for hacking Clinton emails
U.S. President Donald Trump said on Twitter early on Wednesday China hacked the emails of 2016 Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton but did not offer any evidence or further information.
“Hillary Clinton’s Emails, many of which are Classified Information, got hacked by China. Next move better be by the FBI & DOJ or, after all of their other missteps (Comey, McCabe, Strzok, Page, Ohr, FISA, Dirty Dossier etc.), their credibility will be forever gone!” he tweeted a little after midnight on Wednesday.
Trump said in an earlier tweet on Tuesday night: “China hacked Hillary Clinton’s private Email Server. Are they sure it wasn’t Russia (just kidding!)? What are the odds that the FBI and DOJ are right on top of this? Actually, a very big story. Much classified information!”
Speaking in Beijing, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said such accusations were nothing new.
“This isn’t the first time we’ve heard similar kinds of allegations,” Hua told a daily news briefing.
“China is a staunch defender of cybersecurity. We firmly oppose and crack down on any forms of internet attacks and the stealing of secrets,” she added, without specifically mentioning Trump or Clinton in her answer.
U.S. intelligence officials have said Russia orchestrated the hacking of Democratic officials to meddle with the 2016 presidential election.
A U.S. federal grand jury indicted 12 Russian intelligence officers in July on charges of hacking the computer networks of Clinton and the Democratic Party.
Special Counsel Robert Mueller is investigating Russia’s role in the 2016 election and whether the campaign of Republican candidate Trump colluded with Moscow.
Russia denies meddling in the elections, while Trump has denied any collusion.
Trump said in April 2017 China may have hacked the emails of Democratic officials to meddle with the 2016 presidential election.
He also did not provide any evidence backing his allegation at that time.
China has repeatedly denied any accusations of involvement in overseas hacking attacks.
China and the U.S., whose ties are often fraught, are also currently in the midst of an increasingly bitter trade war.
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China mulls scrapping child-birth limits
China is considering lifting child-birth limits, which have been in place in one form or another for four decades, state media reported Tuesday.
A draft of the new civil code submitted to the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress on Monday doesn’t include any provisions related to “family planning,” Xinhua news agency reported.
The change would effectively remove child-birth restrictions, which over the past decades have limited but also aged China’s population, led to gender-ratio imbalances and have been notoriously enforced through huge fines and forced abortions.
The draft, which also proposes other measures such as a “cooling-off period” for divorces and measures to prevent sexual harassment, is being discussed by the congress and slated for adoption by 2020.
In 2016, the Chinese government ended its one-child policy, which had been enacted in 1979, and replaced it with a two-child policy.
But the change failed to produce the rise in the number of births that the government had expected.
N fewer than 17.9 million babies were born in 2016, just 1.3 million more than in the previous year and below the government’s forecast total of 20 million babies.
The number of births further dropped to 17.2 million in 2017.
Many couples are opting not to have a second child due to the rising cost of childcare in China’s major cities and as women are increasingly pursuing education and career advancement.
The government is even considering offering incentives for families to have more babies, state media reported in July.
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Good government policy will transform Nigeria’s economy
The Managing Director, Lifemate Nigeria Limited, Dai Derek said good economic policies will transform the country’s economy from the present state to a developed one.
Derek said China’s economy was like Nigeria twenty-five years ago, but it is now among the leading global economies as a result of good policies.
He said this at the 2018 specialized trade fair and exhibition of Lifemates furniture in Abeokuta, Ogun state as he stressed that they are not in the country only to do business but to invest, create employment, pay tax and train Nigerians on how to produce good furnitures.
He however advised the government to reduce tax to attract more investors and also make available raw materials that can be sourced locally as he wished they can get all their production materials in Nigeria.
“The problem is we can’t get all leather materials in Nigeria as I hope to get all the accessories and materials here so there will be no need to import from China, USA or Italy” he said.
The exhibition is from 17th August till 31st and it coincides along with the Ileya promo where rams will be distributed to their customers.
A guest and Chairman, Ogun State Council of National Union of Civil Engineering Construction, Furniture and Wood Workers (NUCECFWW), Midian Nanle urged the government to create an organised furniture market to boost the manufacturing sector in Nigeria.
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He accused the government of lacking the willpower to create enabling environment to encourage individuals with skills to put it into practice.
Nanle advised government to give soft loan of at least N1.5 million and above to encourage people with furniture skills start up their business.
“The problem we have in Nigeria is that we don’t have the human capacity and the government at the center lack the will power to create the enabling environment to encourage people that have those skills to put them into practice.
“Like in this company, there are people that have been trained well and who want to start their own business but no capital to buy machine, because of the cause of the machines. So if soft loans are provided, it will encourage this people to start up something” he said.
Nanle who was impressed with the quality of materials used for production said the company will be of great value to Ogun state government in terms of revenue generation, employment and tax.
According to him, the company is investing in Nigeria by training workers on how to operate high standard machineries that produce most of the products adding that almost all the goods are made by Nigerians and only being supervised by Chinese.
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Buhari for FOCAC summit in China September
Also to attend United Nations General Assembly next month
Barring last minute change, President Muhammadu Buhari is expected to join world leaders in Beijing, China for the 2018 Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) first week of September.
The Chinese President Xi Jinping is to chair the Forum scheduled for September 3rd to 4th in Beijing.
The summit will be themed “China and Africa: toward an even stronger community with a shared future through win-win cooperation.”
Apart from African leaders, representatives of related regional organizations in Africa and international organizations will also participate in relevant activities of the summit.
Objectives of FOCAC include equal consultation, enhancing understanding, expanding consensus, strengthening friendship and promoting cooperation between African countries and China.
The FOCAC follow-up mechanisms are built at three levels: The Ministerial Conference is held every three years; the Senior Officials Follow-up Meeting and the Senior Officials Preparatory Meeting for the Ministerial Conference are held respectively in the year and a few days before the Ministerial Conference is held.
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The consultations between the African Diplomatic Corps in China and the Secretariat of the Chinese Follow-up Committee are held at least twice a year, while the Ministerial Conference and the Senior Officials Meeting are held alternately in China and an African country, with China and the African host being co-chairs presiding over the meetings and taking lead in implementing the outcomes of the meetings.
The Ministerial Conference is attended by foreign ministers and ministers in charge of international economic cooperation, and the Senior Officials Meeting by director-general level officials of the competent departments of China and African countries.
President Buhari is also billed to attend the United Nations General Assembly in the United States also in September.