…As EU fines smartphone supplier $1.2bn over Apple chip deal***
The Deputy Chinese Ambassador to Nigeria, Mr Lin Jing has revealed that his country’s bilateral trade with Nigeria, from January to December 2017 stood at 12.3 billion dollars.
Jing Lin also noted that the figure represented a 30 per cent increase compared to the same period of 2016.
“The bilateral trade is a very important mechanism to boost our economic relationship.
“We do not have the total trade volume for the whole year, but for the total volume from January to November, bilateral trade stood at 12.3 billion dollars.
“That represents more than 30 per cent of increase compared to the same period of 2016; we believe that by maintaining our normal trade volume, our overall economic relation and cooperation will be boosted and give impetus to our overall relationship” Lin stated, highlighting that Nigeria and China established formal diplomatic relations in Feb. 1971.
The envoy, however, said both countries, in 2005, established strategic partnerships to promote relations in several areas and enhance continued people-to-people exchanges.
He said such strategic partnership was fostered as a result of Nigeria’s importance to China.
“Nigeria is the biggest Chinese investment destination in Africa, the second largest export market and the third largest trading partner of China in Africa,” he said.
Agreements by both countries following the strategic partnership paved way for Chinese investment and development opportunities in Nigeria.
Lin reiterated the Chinese Government’s commitment to exhaust its efforts to promote development programmes in Nigeria.
He said plans were underway to transfer some of China’s industrial capacity to Nigeria
“There is also a concept initiated by my ambassador called made in Nigeria with China.
“I think this is a very good concept; there are many private investors in China, they have expertise, experience and surplus industrial capacity.
“They need to find the market. All these conditions we will make use of to see whether we can try something successful here.”
He further said that China’s relationship with Africa would boost economic activities, generate income and enhance foreign investment.
“We have friends in Africa and we want to further cement our friendship and we believe that by supporting each other we are going to have bigger win win scenario.”
Meanwhile, the EU on Wednesday fined a U.S. Smartphone chip supplier Qualcomm 997 million Euros (1.23 billion dollars) for breaching the bloc’s competition rules through a deal with Apple.
“Qualcomm abused its dominant market position by paying billions of dollars to Apple since 2011 in exchange for the tech giant exclusively using Qualcomm chipsets in its Smartphones and tablets,’’ the commission said.
Margre the Vestager, European commissioner for competition, said the deal prevented Apple from possibly switching to other suppliers of baseband chipsets.
“This meant that no rival could effectively challenge Qualcomm in this market, no matter how good their products were.
“Qualcomm’s behaviour denied consumers and other companies more choice and innovation and this in a sector with a huge demand and potential for innovative technologies,’’ Vestager said
Qualcomm is the world’s largest supplier of baseband chipsets, which are used for voice and data transmission in Smartphones, tablet computers and other mobile devices.
Report says the fine represents 4.9 per cent of Qualcomm’s 2017 turnover.
Vestager noted that Apple was not implicated in the case because the issues were “clearly” Qualcomm using its dominant position in the market to undercut competitors.
“We will congratulate anyone who is successful due to their skill, their innovation, that they on their merits can attract customers to their products.
“However, dominant companies are not allowed to abuse their strong market position to hinder competition in the market,’’ Vestager said.
The EU’s decision might bolster Apple’s position in the various lawsuits the company is tied up in against Qualcomm over royalty payments and patent infringements.
