Australia/Nigeria Trade & Investment Council launched in Perth

(L-R) Hugh Morgan, Steve Davies and Goodluck Jonathan

Australia/Nigeria Trade & Investment Council launched in Perth

The Nigerian government has launched the Australia/Nigeria Trade and Investment Council as part of efforts aimed at attracting foreign direct investment into the country.

The birth of the council was announced during the Australian/Nigerian Businessmen Presidential Dinner, hosted by President Goodluck Jonathan at the on-going Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in Perth, Australia.

The deal

The deal, which was sealed between Minister of Trade and Investment, Mr. Olusegun Aganga, and the Australian Trade Minister, Dr. Craig Emerson, will attract investments from the top 10 Australian companies, including mining giant, Rio Tinto, into the mining, agriculture and financial services sectors of the Nigerian economy, among others.

The council, according to Aganga, will have secretariats in Australia and Lagos, Nigeria while Australian famous businessman, Hugh Morgan, and the Chairman of the Commonwealth Business Council, Dr.  Paschal Dozie, will serve as co-chairs.

 It will be constituted by a maximum of 10 members each from the Nigerian and Australian sides.

Australia’s commitment

Earlier, President Jonathan called for the strengthening of trade and economic relations between Nigeria and the host country.

At a reception hosted in his honour by of Australian Prime Minister, Julie Gillard as part of his pre-Commonwealth Summit Working Visit to Australia, Jonathan reiterated that Nigeria, which is Australia’s second largest trading partner in Africa, would welcome the inflow of the country’s mining expertise and technology for the rapid development of Nigeria’s solid minerals sector.

He reaffirmed his administration’s commitment to achieving a significant and enduring transformation of Nigeria by diversifying the national economy, improving agricultural productivity and developing the solid minerals sector.

In her remarks, Gillard pledged that Australia would support the Jonathan administration to implement its transformation agenda.

She stated that “a new chapter of goodwill and cooperation has opened between our two countries”

NP/ Adekusibe/Ekata