China International Import Expo plays a significant role in facilitating cooperation between China and Kazakhstan in the wake of the Belt and Road Initiative, according to officials, experts and business representatives.

“Since its first edition, the CIIE has adhered to its positioning as an international public product, upheld the principles of open cooperation and mutual benefit, promoted high-quality collaboration in the BRI and consistently advocated for expanding opening-up,” Shi Huangjun, representative of the National Exhibition and Convention Center (Shanghai), said in an address to the Global Conference on the 10th Anniversary of the BRI and the Golden Age of China-Central Asia Engagement event on Sept 7.

Kazakhstan, recipient of an original proposal from the BRI in 2013, was the first Central Asian country to participate in the initiative. The CIIE was launched in 2018, after the first Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation. Since 2018, its businesses have participated in the CIIE for five consecutive sessions.

In 2022, Kazakhstan launched the Export Accelerator, a program for entrepreneurs of small and medium-sized businesses aimed at helping them prepare for the export of goods to foreign markets.

So far, the program has attracted over 1,000 enterprises, including 300 that have exported for the first time and secured their first export contracts, said Gulnar Shaimergenova, director of the China Studies Center in Kazakhstan. She added there is no doubt the CIIE will be a key platform for the implementation of the Export Accelerator program and play a crucial role in promoting global development.

The CIIE has fostered opportunities for businesses from countries and regions involved in the BRI while benefiting the welfare of local people. Over the past five years, the expo has seen an accumulated intended turnover of about $350 billion, with participation of businesses from 171 countries and regions.

As of now, nearly 1,000 businesses from countries and regions involved in the BRI, including Kazakhstan, have signed up for the sixth CIIE, which has a total exhibition area of 75,000 square meters — an increase of about 20 percent compared to the previous edition.

Egemberdieva Asel Yerikovna, deputy CEO of QazTrade, said Kazakhstani enterprises have participated in the CIIE for five consecutive sessions, and the cumulative “intention to deal” amount has reached $430 million.

For the upcoming sixth edition, QazTrade will support 25 businesses to participate and exhibit Kazakhstan’s featured agricultural products, such as camel milk and honey.

“These high-quality products are closely related to a vast number of farmers and herdsmen in Kazakhstan. The CIIE will help improve their well-being for a better life,” according to Yerikovna.

During the event at Nazarbayev University, the CIIE also held a symposium, attracting more than 40 businesses.

“We have operated our factory for 18 years, and this year will be our first time participating in the Import Expo,” said a manager of a dairy company in Alma-Ata, Kazakhstan, adding he hopes the company can leverage the platform of the CIIE to meet more channel partners and expand the influence of its dairy brand in the Chinese market.

The CIIE has helped to introduce more high-quality products from countries and regions involved in the BRI into the Chinese market, thus assisting the Chinese people in pursuing a better life.

Contact：Ms. Cui Yan

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Email：ciie2022@ciie.org

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By Salisu Sani-Idris

The Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA) has ordered the Director of FCT Health Insurance Scheme to register its pensioners in the scheme.

The Director, FCTA Human Resource Management, Bashir Muhammad, in a statement on Sunday in Abuja, disclosed that the Permanent Secretary FCTA, Adesola Olusade, gave the directive during a meeting with the officials of Nigeria Union of Pensioners, FCT chapter.

He said that the permanent secretary’s decision was to give the retired staffers a sense of belonging, as well keep to the promise they had in December 2022, with the Minister of FCT, Malam Muhammad Bello.

Muhammad said: “We have directed that all FCTA pensioners should be enrolled in the FCT Health Insurance Scheme, and the registration is in progress, forms have been issued to the retirees to be filled, so that they will be captured.”

The director also said that the FCT administration was only owing its retired staffers consequential increment which arose from the national minimum wage implementation.

He added: “What the FCTA is owing the pensioners is the consequential increment that arose from the minimum wage implementation, we are on it. The budgetary processes have to be completed.”

On the zero-balance payment, he said that the FCT pension department was also working with the pensioners to ensure that everybody whose monies were deducted should be paid within one week.

“FCT administration has been applauded for not owing its pensioners.The only issue is between the bank and the consequential increment that had accrued as the result of the minimum wage implementation.” (NAN) (www.nannews.ng)

Edited by Bashir Rabe Mani

THE EXPLAINER

Eight facts about the new FAANTaxi App

The Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) recently inaugurated its TaxiApp for booking trips and the initiative is starting with the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport (NAIA), Abuja.

Here are eight facts that you need to know about the app:

1. The FAAN App can be accessed on Google Play Store

2. The App is only available for trips that have either the pickup or drop off location at the airport.

3. For users who do not wish to have the App on their mobile devices, rides can be booked at the arrival lounge in the domestic arrival terminal while those who wish to schedule rides in advance have the option of doing so on the App.

4. Users are required to provide details in order to secure their account on FAANTaxi. Once an account has been created for the user, access to the features and services provided by FAANTaxi is granted.

5. Users are given options of standard or executive cars while estimated price and details of driver will be provided.

6. Details of driver including name as well as phone numbers, number plates of vehicle model to be provided.

7. FAANTaxi has a tracking system which would be updated in due time to include trip progress and whether completed or not.

8. All taxi operators at the airport are to be registered on FAANTaxi and passengers will call the drivers using the app thus eliminating touting.

By Perpetua Onuegbu

The Minister of Water Resources, Mr Suleiman Adamu, has pledged the determination of the Federal Government to provide necessary incentives to make the girl-child in Nigeria to study engineering.

Adamu gave the pledge in Abuja on Friday while speaking at the investiture of Mrs Charity Ojobo, the new chairman of the Abuja Chapter of the Association of Professional Women Engineers in Nigeria (APWEN) and also to mark the International Day of Women and Girls in Science.

He said that government would support APWEN to achieve its collective goals, stressing the role of women in the development of any society, especially in the developing world.

The minister told the association to keep the flag flying in pursuit of its drive to achieve the collective mandate of encouraging more girls to take up careers in the engineering profession.

Speaking earlier, Ojobo said that “if the girl-child is brought up to show deep interest in engineering such a measure would foster nation building.

“Engineering is a career that one can comfortably stay in the house and make your pay and it is a career that is central to the wellbeing of our citizens.”

According to her, the new leadership of the Abuja Chapter of APWEN has decided to forge ahead and ensure that the nation has more female engineers than before.

“We have programmes for women in the FCT and its villages and we are collaborating with the ministry of water resources to achieve set objectives, including attracting the girl-child to engineering.

She said that the chapter had embarked on different programmes to attract more girl child to engineering profession, part of which she said was a competition organized among secondary schools in Abuja.

She said that 28  private and public schools participated in the competition, out of which four comprised two public and two private, emerged the best.

According to her, Government Day Secondary School, Dutsen Alhaji  and Government Girls Secondary Schools Kuje clinched first and second positions, respectfully in the public schools category.

Also, Glisten International Academy came first, while The Great Height Academy emerged second position in the private schools .

Also speaking, a former lawmaker, Sen. Ayogu Eze, told the Nigerian Society of Engineers to carry out more oversight visits to engineering sites, to reduce cases of building collapses and other professional lapses in engineering.

He said that the report of the Lagos 21-storey building collapse which was submitted to the Council of Registered Engineers in Nigeria this week, indicted the engineers that handled the project.

Eze said that more oversight visits would have averted the collapse of the building and similar incidents nationwide.

The Guest Speaker, Dr Boluwaji Onabolu, speaking on “Equity, Diversity and Inclusion: Water Unites Us’’, stressed the importance of water and hygiene, describing water and sanitation as human rights.

She said that a lack of access to water was contributing to the insecurity in the country, describing water availability as essential to peaceful co-existence in any nation.

Onabolu called on engineering stakeholders and the government to ensure adequate provision and access to water by all citizens. (NAN)

The fourth CIIE presages commendable prospects for 2022

Despite ongoing uncertainties facing the world economy, opening-up, development opportunities, and economic globalization are three counters to those headwinds, and all were present at the fourth China International Import Expo (CIIE) convening from Nov 5 to 10. A total of 422 new products, technologies, and services were featured at the expo, an all-time peak.

The value of tentative deals reached for one-year purchases of goods and services at the fourth CIIE hit $70.72 billion.

This year’s CIIE not only brought fancy products but also avant-garde consumption concepts as well as innovative ideas. The importance of CIIE continues to grow as it becomes an economic hotspot for countries and enterprises.

A total of 281 Fortune Global 500 companies and industry leaders were present at the fourth CIIE. Among these, nearly 40 joined for the first time and over 120 were four-time participants.

The display area for consumer goods this year occupied 90,000 square meters of exhibition space, the largest among all areas. The Food and Agricultural Products exhibition area accommodated the most exhibitors, attracting more than 1,200 enterprises from 102 countries. All the world’s top 10 carmakers attended the expo.

The Online Country Exhibition enabled 58 countries and three international organizations to showcase their development achievements, leading industries, and tourist attractions. Pageviews reached 58 million, and leaders of participating countries and organizations expressed high praise for the CIIE’s furtherance of global openness and cooperation.

The fourth Hongqiao International Economic Forum focused on green development, digital economy, and new forms in consumption. The World Openness Report 2021 and the index on openness for 129 economies since 2008 were released.

A total of 95 supporting activities for matters such as policy interpretation, joint signing, and investment promotion were held during the fourth CIIE to promote trade, two-way investment, and industrial cooperation.

Having experienced the benefits of the fourth CIIE, enterprises hailed it as an event that allows them to tap into China’s massive consumer population and a multitude of opportunities therein.

Registration for the fifth CIIE has already started. Up to 150,000 sq m of exhibition area has already been booked for next year’s expo, a considerable increase in sign-up rate compared to last year.

Contact: Nie Qingxin

Tel.: 0086-21-67008870/67008988