The 8th Ministerial Conference of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation, held in Dakar, the capital of Senegal at the end of 2021, opened a new chapter for China-Africa cooperation under the framework of the Belt and Road Initiative. —2024)”, in the first three-year plan, China will work closely with African countries to jointly implement the “nine projects”. This provides new opportunities for Chinese enterprises to develop in Africa, especially the African Overseas Economic and Trade Cooperation Zone represented by Nigeria's Lekki Free Trade Zone (hereinafter referred to as "Lekki Free Trade Zone") has once again stood at the top of the wave of China-Africa cooperation .

In 2006, the construction of the Lekki Free Trade Zone started. The cumulative investment in infrastructure on this 30-square-kilometer land has exceeded 150 million US dollars. , network, natural gas), and improve the corresponding supporting facilities, such as bayonet building, convention and exhibition center, standard workshop, customs clearance center, guest house, staff camp, police station, hospital, etc.

Overall, the construction of the Lekki Free Trade Zone is mainly divided into two stages, and it is still in the first stage, that is, the first stage of construction of 11.76 square kilometers. The first phase of construction is mainly about the infrastructure construction of the park and the investment attraction and operation services of industrial real estate. The main focus of the second phase is the construction, investment and operation services of commercial real estate, and the construction and operation services of residential real estate. As of the end of November 2021, 102 enterprises including Huawei, Longrich Group, Xuzhou Construction Machinery Group, and China National Heavy Duty Truck Group have signed investment agreements to enter the zone, and settled here and successively completed, put into production and operated.

In recent years, driven by the Belt and Road Initiative and China-Africa cooperation, the number of companies entering the park has grown rapidly, and the Lekki Free Trade Zone has entered a period of rapid development. Even in the midst of the epidemic in 2020, the Lekki Free Trade Zone still attracted 9 companies to the park with its good software and hardware conditions and strong anti-risk capabilities. As of the end of November 2021, the enterprises in the park have invested more than 353 million US dollars in total, achieved a total output value of more than 447 million US dollars, achieved a total import and export value of 917 million US dollars, created 2,000 jobs, and paid Nigeria government taxes and fees of more than 89 million US dollars.

A model of China-Africa cooperation

The earliest planning goal of the Lekki Free Trade Zone is to build a modern comprehensive new city integrating production, living, leisure and entertainment on the Lekki Peninsula in the southeast of Lagos. Four industries including urban service industry. However, as the current situation changes, the Lekki Free Trade Zone has adjusted its future development strategy. The so-called external changes mainly come from the following two aspects:

First, 3 kilometers away from the Lekki Free Trade Zone, the Lekki New Port, which is mainly invested and constructed by China Harbour, is in full swing. After the port is completed, it will become the largest deep-water port in West Africa, which will greatly promote the economic development of the surrounding area and make the flow of people, logistics and information more smooth.

Second, Aliko Dangote, Africa's richest man, purchased 27 square kilometers of land next to the Lekki Free Trade Zone, investing US$17 billion to build the world's largest monomer oil refinery and fertilizer plant. At present, the fertilizer plant has Trial production has begun, and the refinery is under construction and will be commissioned in early 2023. The entire project will greatly enhance the economy and land value of the entire region, which will become the engine of economic development in the entire region.

To this end, the Lekki Free Trade Zone has actively adjusted its strategy and put forward new development goals to build a modern Lingang New City here. Due to its close proximity to the port, businesses such as economy and trade, logistics, e-commerce, and bonded trade will all become the key areas for the future development of the Lekki Free Trade Zone, especially e-commerce will become the focus of the next strategic development of the Free Trade Zone. With the completion of the Dangote refinery, petrochemicals and their supporting industries will also be another key area of strategic adjustment.

In the future, the Lekki Free Trade Zone will attract 300 to 500 companies to invest in, covering industries including automobiles and construction machinery, household appliances, home building materials, oil and gas chemicals, e-commerce and logistics. It should be noted that the Lekki Free Trade Zone will also set selection criteria for settled enterprises, and select enterprises that are deeply involved in the construction of the Belt and Road and can improve the efficiency of international production capacity cooperation, or those that meet the needs of local industrialization. Key or leading enterprises with high environmental protection, high technology content and high output value will settle in.

The motivation for companies to choose to settle in the Lekki Free Trade Zone first comes from the top-level design of China-Africa cooperation. Since its launch in 2006, the Lekki Free Trade Zone has received high attention and strong support from the governments of China and Nepal. In November 2007, the Lekki Free Trade Zone was approved by the Ministry of Commerce as a state-level "Overseas Economic and Trade Cooperation Zone". In April 2010, the first phase of the Lekki Free Trade Zone was approved by the National Development and Reform Commission for overseas investment. In November 2010, the Lekki Free Trade Zone passed the overseas economic and trade cooperation zone confirmation assessment by the Ministry of Commerce and the Ministry of Finance; in 2011 and 2012, the Lekki Free Trade Zone passed the annual assessment jointly conducted by the Ministry of Commerce and the Ministry of Finance. . In particular, in December 2015, Chinese President Xi Jinping proposed at the opening ceremony of the Johannesburg Summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) in the “Top Ten China-Africa Cooperation Plans” to be implemented with the African side in the next three years. Production capacity cooperation, encourage and support Chinese enterprises to invest in Africa, and cooperate to build or upgrade a number of industrial parks. This has laid a solid foundation for the development of the Lekki Free Trade Zone.

Secondly, enterprises have taken a fancy to the huge market potential of Nigeria and its surrounding areas and the unique advantages of the Lekki Free Trade Zone. With a population of 206 million, Nigeria is Africa's largest economy, largest population and largest crude oil exporter. Lagos, the city where the Lekki Free Trade Zone is located, is the economic capital of Nigeria with a population of more than 21 million and 60% of the country's industrial and commercial enterprises. It is a veritable economic, financial, trade and logistics center in the country. The Lekki Peninsula in the Atlantic Ocean can also radiate developed countries and regions such as Europe and the United States. At present, China is Nigeria's largest source of imports, and Nigeria's domestic demand for Chinese products is huge.

Thirdly, the Lekki Free Trade Zone can not only become a safe island for enterprises to invest, but also provide an unparalleled space for enterprises to formalize their operations in Africa. The reason why some of China's overseas economic and trade cooperation zones can achieve rapid development is that they have the endorsement of the state and the support of large state-owned enterprises, which provide unique conditions for enterprises entering the park in terms of safety and formality. Behind the Lekki Free Trade Zone are China Railway Construction Group, China-Africa Development Fund, China Civil Engineering Group, and the strong endorsement of the local government of Lagos, Nigeria, whether it is daily security and formal compliance operations, or hydropower. In terms of continuous supply guarantee, it is the foothold for Chinese enterprises to go out and invest. In addition, enterprises entering the park also enjoy a series of local policies: permanent exemption from value-added tax, customs duties, corporate income tax, education surcharge, stamp duty; wholly foreign-owned shares; capital profits can be freely remitted in and out, etc.

Finally, the security conditions of the Lekki Free Trade Zone in West Africa are very good. The park adopts a fully enclosed management. There is not only a police station set up by the local government, but also its own security team, which implements 24-hour uninterrupted patrols. During the epidemic, the Lekki Free Trade Zone strictly controlled the flow of people and increased the intensity of closed management, so that the enterprises entering the park avoided the large-scale spread of the epidemic on the premise of ensuring normal production and operation.

After the baptism of the fight against the epidemic, the Lekki Free Trade Zone believes that the construction and investment promotion of the park will usher in a greater explosive growth, and more companies will settle in the park, which also puts forward a higher level of management for the Free Trade Zone. Requirements, how to provide professional security services for enterprises entering the park is the most challenging task at present. At present, in addition to providing full-process services for enterprises to settle in, the Lekki Free Trade Zone urgently needs offshore banks to land, so that enterprises entering the Free Trade Zone can realize foreign currency exchange business efficiently, with high quality and convenience as soon as possible, and it is best to provide RMB. Offshore exchange services. This is because there is a shortage of U.S. dollars throughout Africa. Nigeria is still a country with abundant U.S. dollars, but the enterprises entering the park are also faced with the inability to enjoy timely and efficient U.S. dollar exchange services in local regular banks. Its official U.S. dollar exchange channel rare. The exchange of US dollars through third-party channels not only faces high risks, but also faces an exchange rate price difference that is nearly 20% to 25% higher than the official exchange rate of the National Bank, which is very unfavorable for enterprises to remit profits to the country in a timely manner. Keywords: One Belt One Road, One Belt One Road News, One Belt One Road Project

In the post-epidemic era, domestic companies with the intention of going global will usher in the best time, and the global consumption desire will also be greatly released. The Lekki Free Trade Zone hopes that government departments and trade promotion agencies will actively develop overseas economic and trade cooperation zones. Publicity activities to promote financial institutions to carry out overseas offshore banking services, while solving the worries of enterprises going abroad, promote the healthy development of overseas economic and trade cooperation zones.Editor/XuNing