By Liu Chen & Wang Xiongjun, Research Team on “The Development of International Cooperation”, China Intelligence Center for International Development

Research Report, No.150, 2018 (Total 5425) 2018-9-10

Abstract:The free trade zone in Lekki, China-Nigeria Economic and Trade Cooperation Zone, is currently China’s largest overseas economic and trade cooperation zone. The free trade zone has already taken shape after efforts of over a decade and its development displays good momentum. However, problems still loom up in the development of the free trade zone. These include blocked financing channels, inadequate high-level personnel, outdated local infrastructure, unsophisticated local governance system, lack of bilateral coordination mechanism and supporting policies and systems not full-fledged in from China side. It is suggested that China needs to first improve the top design of the going global strategy and gradually set the model of going global in which enterprises supported by the government play a leading role. China also needs to propel exchange mechanisms to be formulated for China-Nigeria cooperation to gain tangible results, solve problems looming up in cooperation in a timely manner, encourage social communities to jointly go global and push ahead with in-depth research of conditions in different countries, so as to provide more comprehensive supporting policies and mechanisms for enterprises to invest overseas and propel the global outreach of domestic enterprises to improve continuously and steadily across the board.

Key words: Chinese enterprises going global, investment in Africa, free trade zone in Lekki