Sierra Leone Embassy in China opens Commercial Section Office in Shanghai

The Embassy of the Republic of Sierra Leone in the People’s Republic of China, has, on June 16th opened a Branch of its Commercial Section in Shanghai, Eastern China. This is an internal arrangement aimed at decentralizing the activities of the Embassy’s Commercial Section in a bid to effectively attract more Investments and Trade opportunities from China to Sierra Leone.

The event was attended by staff from the Embassy in Beijing, including the Ambassador and wife, Deputy Ambassador and the Press Attaché. It climaxed the installation of Xian Nainjie ,CEO of Shanghai Juxi Asset Management and Senior Member of the Shanghai Chamber of Commerce as Sierra Leone’s Commercial Counselor, in charge of the Shanghai Office.

This colorful ceremony was also attended by dozens of Chinese Business men and women, potential investors and friends of Sierra Leone.

Speaking at the ceremony, His Excellency Victor Bockarie Foh, highlighted the importance that Sierra Leone attaches to seeking more Trade and Investment opportunities from China to Sierra Leone to enhance President Ernest Bai Koroma’s drive for national development in concord with Government’s blueprint, the ‘Agenda for Prosperity’

According to Ambassador Foh, the opening of a Commercial Office in Shanghai is aimed at reaching greater numbers of worthy Private Sector Investment in the areas of Trade, Commerce and Tourism and to attract greater Public as well as Private capital flow from China into Sierra Leone’s development. “This is also an indication of our desire and commitment to expand and build upon our long and very cordial relationship with the People’s Republic of China”,Ambassador Foh said.

He called on the new Commercial Counselor to look at Sierra Leone’s untapped investment potentials in the areas of Tourism, Real Estate Development, Water, Electricity, Roads and Infrastructure, Transportation, Medical and Health, Communications, Ports, Railways, Telecommunications, Marine Resources, etc, etc.

Ambassador Foh admonished Mr, Xia to use his good offices to attract trustworthy investors to participate in all sectors of Sierra Leone’s development agenda currently prescribed by His Excellency President Ernest Bai Koroma.

The People’s Republic of China is a great country by all standards and with its 23 very economically viable Provinces, 4 efficiently and effectively managed Autonomous Regions and 4 huge / mega Municipalities, the People’s Republic of China needs dedicated and hard working people with the requisite caliber to reach out to the numerous investors this country can certainly boast of.

According to Ambassador Foh, “we need our eyes and ears to spread out in China in order to capture business investments and build sound diplomatic relations with this great country…”,thus the need for the decentralization of the Commercial Section of the Embassy in Beijing. “By our internal arrangement and in the interests of both Sierra Leone and China, we are determined to reach every administrative compartment of the People’s Republic of China.”,he said.

Ambassador Foh encouraged the new Commercial Counselor to use the Public Private Partnership medium of development to capture more and worthy Private Sector investment opportunities into Sierra Leone. “With your formal installation as our Commercial Counselor in Shanghai, you will be the eye of the Embassy for Trade ,Commerce and Investment…use your experience to get the much desired result”

He said, there are many good investors in the People’s Republic of China “..we want some of them to go into Sierra Leone and within the ECOWAS Sub-Region.We therefore call on you to use Sierra Leone as your base and spring into other ECOWAS countries”

Making a statement was the Board chairman for Shanghai Juxi Asset Management, Wu Chen. He promised,on behalf of the company to do all they could to bring good results. “We will use our team to do the best. We will bring Sierra Leonean culture and friendship here into Shanghai and we will use our expertise in business to take investments into Sierra Leone…”

In his brief statement,Xia Nianjie the new Commercial Counselor said, he was honored to be appointed Commercial Counselor for the Embassy of Sierra Leone in China, in charge of Shanghai. Sierra Leone, he said, has got great investment opportunities as seen in areas of Petroleum, Marine Sector, Tourism and in the development of People to People friendship and human resource capacity building.

Both Sierra Leone and China, Xia said, have had over forty years of strong,cordial and unbroken ties both at the levels of People to People and diplomacy. The opening of a Branch of the Embassy’s Commercial Section in Shanghai which is a massive business center, he believes , is a manifestation of these long standing ties between the two countries.

He said, he will seek to work towards the mutual benefit of both Sierra Leone and China and promised to push towards economic and trade cooperation through the Shanghai Commercial Office.

By population, Shanghai is the second largest Chinese city with a population of about 24 million. It is one of the four direct-controlled municipalities of PR China and it is the world’s busiest container port. Shanghai is a major commercial hub for China and a well recognized global Financial Centre. it is said to have the highest number of skyscrapers the world over. The City is located in the Yangtze River Delta, in East of China.

John Baimba Sesay, IA, China (Report compiled from Shanghai)

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