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| During the four-day working visit he is due to meet President Jacques Chirac, officials and business leaders from the country which is now the second biggest investor in the west African giant's economy after the United States. |
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PARIS, May 23 (AFP) - Nigeria's President Olusegun Obasanjo arrived in France on Monday on a mission to win debt relief and greater inward investment and to push his country's case for a seat on an expanded UN Security Council.
He was greeted at Charles de Gaulle airport north of Paris by French Finance Minister Thierry Breton, highlighting the decidedly economic drive of his trip.
During the four-day working visit he is due to meet President Jacques Chirac, officials and business leaders from the country which is now the second biggest investor in the west African giant's economy after the United States.
Obasanjo will be the guest of honor on Wednesday for "Africa Day" at the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), French officials said.
"President Obasanjo's visit will provide the opportunity to consolidate a relationship to which France is very attached," said French foreign ministry spokeswoman Cecile Pozzo di Borgo.
But most importantly, as with recent meetings with Britain's Prime Minister Tony Blair and US President George W. Bush, Obasanjo will urge Paris to cancel Nigeria's 35-billion-dollar (28-billion-euro) external debt.
"This is a visit that President Obasanjo is particularly happy about. It affords him the opportunity, once more, to meet President Jacques Chirac and French investors," said Obasanjo's spokeswoman Remi Oyo.
Oyo said the Nigerian president, in his capacity as African Union chairman, would also brief Chirac on crises in Africa, including developments in Togo, Ivory Coast and Guinea Bissau.
"We also need French assistance in the Nigerian campaign for a seat in the UN Security Council," she added. As Africa's most populous country, Nigeria hopes to secure one of two Africa seats in a proposed expansion of the council.
Obasanjo is due to leave office in 2007 after two elected terms and hopes his renewed drive to combat corruption and waste in his country's murky public finances will convince creditor nations to grant him debt relief as a legacy.
Nigeria's former colonial ruler Britain has responded positively, but France and the United States have been more reticent, arguing that at a time of soaring world oil prices Nigerian ought to be able to pay what it owes.
But while France has been an obstacle within the Paris Club of lending nations to Nigeria's quest for debt cancellation, it has become an important economic partner in other spheres.
French imports from Nigeria were worth 912 million euros last year, with 95 percent of the total accounted for by oil and natural gas. Nigeria is Africa's largest oil exporter and the ninth biggest producer in the world.
Nigeria imported French goods -- essentially industrial equipment, cars and refined fuels -- worth 72 million euros, making it France's second biggest client on the continent, behind South Africa and ahead of Ivory Coast.
With business in the country worth four billion euros (five billion dollars) France is the second largest investor in Nigeria after the United States, according to French officials, principally in the oil and motor industries.
Peugeot Nigeria is run in partnership between the French firm and the Nigerian government. Meanwhile, with 3,600 employees in the southern city of Port Harcourt tyre giant Michelin employs more Nigerians than most oil majors.
French investment in Nigeria is hampered however by the volatile political and economic climate and by an influx of Asian, particularly Chinese products, many of them counterfeits of European exports, according to French officials.
However the French energy giant Total continues to invest massively and plans to double its production over the next few years as more deepwater fields come online in the Gulf of Guinea.
Obasanjo was expected to visit a Total research facility in southwest France during his stay, French officials said. |
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