In a bid to facilitate good trade relations between Taiwan and Nigeria, both governments are working to promote investor protection.
This was disclosed by the representative of Taiwan government in Nigeria, Andy Yih-Ping Liu, in an exclusive interview with Daily Trust.
Liu said: “Taiwan and Nigeria’s exports to each other grew more than 100%, which is very, very remarkable progress. Now both governments are working to promote a better investment protection mechanism.
Bilateral trade between Nigeria and Taiwan totalled $295 million in 2020, decreasing -17.47% over 2019. Of this figure, Nigerian exports to Taiwan accounted for $199m, while Taiwanese exports to Nigeria accounted for the remaining $95m. This indicates increasingly prosperous bilateral economic and trade exchanges between the two sides.
“We are keen on the framework of promoting trade and investment. As for the actual trading and investment, we’ll leave it to the private sector,” he said.
He also said the Abuja Chamber of Commerce Industry (ACCI) is the Taiwanese biggest trading promoting council in Nigeria.
“We have been very practical in promoting good trading. We both share the enthusiasm for promoting good trade. Our office has achieved one very important milestone which is to support the Export-Import Bank in Nigeria with a $5 million trade guarantee.”
He said the economic division of the embassy signed an MoU for cooperation with ACCI in September during the Halal expo organised by ACCI in Abuja.
“Our next step is to have the Lagos Chamber of Commerce Industry (LCCI) sign the MoU with our Taiwan trade promoting council, probably in the near future.”
Also speaking with Daily Trust, the Economic Consular of the Taipei Trade Office in Nigeria, Chia-Jung Mai, said Nigeria spends about $20m on imports of machinery, chemicals, and other goods from Taiwan annually.
“Most of the items are material imports like industrial products like injection machines, machinery, chemicals, and raw materials,” he stated.
