Senate President Adolphus Wabara has called on
the Chinese parliament to assist the National Assembly in capacity building
and information technology.
Speaking at the National Assembly on Sunday
during talks between Nigerian and Chinese parliamentary delegations, Wabara
said, as ``the youngest arm in our democracy '', the legislature was in need
of assistance in upgrading its facilities.
``We call for parliamentary exchanges in
legislators and staff between both parliaments,'' the Senate President said.
He said that, as an institution in an emerging
democracy, the National Assembly reckons with much older democracies such as
China.
``We are happy at the eagerness of China to
open up to Nigeria even in the area of transfer of technology, which we
hitherto thought was impossible,'' he said.
Wabara expressed happiness at the increasing
business ties between both countries, and attributed the development partly
to the confidence of investors and trading partners resulting from the
foreign travels of President Olusegun Obasanjo.
The Senate President received spontaneous
ovation when he declared: ``Nigeria will continue to support the One China
policy of your government'', a reference to the Chinese government's
determination to re-unify China and Taiwan, which broke away in 1949
following a civil war.
Responding, the leader of the Chinese
delegation, Mr. Wu Bangguo said China and Nigeria share ``traditional
friendship'' since inception of diplomatic relations 33 years ago, observing
that tremendous changes had since taken place in the international arena.
Wu, who is president of the National Peoples
Congress (or Chinese parliament) said President Obasanjo and Chinese
President Jiang Zemin had laid the foundation for very good bilateral
relations and high-level visits on both sides.
He said that more than 250 persons participated
recently in the China-Nigeria Trade Forum, including state governors and top
government officials, saying trade between both countries last year amounted
to 1.85 billion U.S. dollars.
Earlier, at another venue, the Chinese delegation participated
in talks and signed agreements with some Nigerian companies in the areas of
telecommunication and information technology.
