The Taiwanese government has made a case for the renegotiation of bilateral relations and signing of trade promotion agreement with its Nigerian counterpart to explore mutually beneficial opportunities between both countries.
Andy Yih-Ping Liu, Chief of Taiwan Mission at the Taipei Trade Office in Nigeria made this suggestion in Lagos last weekend while chatting with some newsmen.
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.”
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”.
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.
According to him, it is very important that the Nigerian government together with Nigerian industries and NACIMA promote a stronger and healthier relation with Taiwan with the government signing the agreement to promote mutually beneficial relationship in green energy and other sectors.
In line with the promotion of trade, Andy Yih-Ping Liu said that trade delegation from Taiwan had come to Nigeria to promote trade relations. He recalled that in 2024, Pan-African Taiwan Chamber of Commerce annual meeting was held in Nigeria.
He said the meeting was always held in South Africa but holding it in Nigeria last year demonstrated commitment to Nigeria and occasion for Taiwanese business people across Africa to explore more business opportunity in Nigeria.
Taiwan Representative and Head of Mission further said that the trade promotion is not what government can do as it has to be from industry and chamber of commerce perspective but said at the same time they will rely on government negotiation to sign the protection of investment agreement as soon as possible to promote the trade.
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