*Nigeria sends foreign ministry delegation
From Ikenna Emewu in Beijing
As at the close of the day, Saturday, 29 presidents and heads of government had arrived Beijing, China’s capital city for the Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation.
The Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) is an economic, political and cultural integration initiative the Chinese government created in September 2013 to provide alternative cooperation platform for world economic deliberations.
Chinese President Xi Jinping had announced at the end of last year that about 60 countries had subscribed to the platform, making it the largest economic integration body outside the World Bank and IMF as it cuts across all continents and regional blocs.
Among the expected countries is Nigeria that Sunday Sun gathered would be represented by a delegation that would be led by the Permanent Secretary of the Foreign Ministry.
Also, Saturday evening, Chinese media had confirmed through the Foreign Ministry that some G7 countries like South Korea and US would send delegates to the forum. Others among the top economies sending delegates are the governments of France, Germany and UK and also the European Union (EU).
African presidents like those of Kenya and Ethiopia are part of the conference and had arrived Beijing at the time of filing this report.
The BRI is China’s second economic global forum after the Asia Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) that is domiciled in Beijing and came alive on Christmas Day, 2015.
Last year, China had hosted the G20 economic summit during which it canvassed that the richer economies do their best to assist the 123 poorest countries get liberation.
At the regional level, China also hosts annually the Boao Summit on Asian Economy and later this year would play host to the BRICS Summit, also on economy.
As President Xi received the heads of governments, he pledged that China would compensate for their support for the Initiative with what he called heavy investment in their economies.
Some of the countries slated for the conference include Nigeria, Kenya, Ethiopia, South Africa, the AU Commission, Turkey, Singapore and Greece.
Others are Mexico, Brazil, Suriname, Greece, Russia, Spain, Malaysia, Indonesia,
Uzbekistan and Poland, among others.
A Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson confirmed Friday representatives from the European Union, France, Germany, Britain, Japan, the Republic of Korea (ROK) and the United States will attend the Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation in Beijing.
Geng Shuang, spokesman of the China Foreign Ministry stated that “the Washington delegation will be led by Matt Pottinger, special assistant to the president and senior director for Asia at the National Security Council.
Park Byeong-suk, former deputy speaker of National Assembly of the ROK, will also attend, along with Toshihiro Nikai, secretary-general of Japan’s ruling Liberal Democratic Party.
As a special envoy of British Prime Minister Theresa May, Chancellor of the Exchequer Philip Hammond, will attend the forum; and German Chancellor Angela Merkel will send Minister of Economic Affairs Brigitte Zypries. Former French Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin will lead the French delegation.”
The European Commission Vice President Jyrki Katainen will also attend, Geng said.
The government regarding investment announced that: “China will pour more investment into countries and regions related to the Belt and Road Initiative to boost international cooperation in production capacity, a senior official with the nation’s top economic planning body said on Friday.
“Chinese outbound investment is forecast to total $600 billion to $800 billion over the next five years, a fairly large proportion of which will go into markets related to the Belt and Road Initiative,” said Ning Jizhe, vice-minister of the National Development and Reform Commission, at a news conference.”