The Charge D’affairs of the Chinese Embassy, Mr. Zhang Yi, has reaffirmed China’s commitment to collaborate with Nigeria in cultural exchange programmes and infrastructure development.

The acting Ambassador to Nigeria made the commitment to reaffirm continuous collaborations with the Ministry of Art, Culture, and Creative Economy, when he visited the Minister, Hannatu Musa Musawa, at the weekend in Abuja.

Mr Yi emphasised the importance of partnership between Nigeria and China, particularly in infrastructural development, highlighting the Minister’s agenda for strategic partnership and infrastructure development, especially with plans to develop the Abuja creative city project.

“China has been putting great efforts into supporting the sovereignty of Nigeria. We are also encouraging Chinese companies to come and invest in Nigeria. That is why a lot of Chinese companies have a huge presence here in Nigeria, but the foundation of both countries wouldn’t be solid without cultural and people exchanges, and that is why my country attaches great importance to cultural tourism, and people-to-people exchanges between China and Nigeria.

“Nigeria has a rich cultural background, and we need to do cultural exchanges. We should get to know each other better to strengthen our relationship. We are planning to host President Tinubu in China in September, and we hope you will be a part of the delegation, so you can come and see the culture of China.”

Responding, Musawa emphasised the need for both countries to align in areas of culture to showcase their unique selling point to the world.

“I would like us to explore different programmrs and initiatives that we can do together at Davos or UNGA or the Olympics or something to show the world that China and Nigeria are very much aligned.

“Investment is very important for us, and I think there are lots of investments to be made in Nigeria, especially with the ministry. We want to build infrastructure, one of which is the Abuja Creative City, which is going to be a huge one-stop shop for everything culture and creativity in Africa. The Abuja Creative City will house film studios, arenas, museums and galleries. We don’t have a museum in Abuja, so we plan to have our own Louvre in Abuja.

“We are working with the FCT ministry to identify some potential locations for the project. We want to have China Town, Korea Town, India Town, Brazil Town, etc in the Creative City. These are some of the things we can collaborate on, and I know that in terms of infrastructure, China is the best, so I look forward to some collaborations.”

The Minister and the Ambassador also discussed progress made during the first meeting of the Culture and Tourism subcommittee of the Intergovernmental Committee of China and Nigeria, held online on January 12, 2022.

The two sides reviewed and discussed the achievements between China and Nigeria in recent years and the future development of culture and tourism cooperation. They agreed to take the establishment of the sub-committee as an opportunity to further promote bilateral cultural exchanges and tourism cooperation.

This renewed commitment to collaboration is expected to yield significant benefits for both nations, driving economic growth, cultural exchange, and creative innovation.