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World Bank President, Mr. Paul Wolfowitz, and President Olusegun Obasanjo held talks on Tuesday on the country's economy.....
World Bank President, Mr. Paul Wolfowitz, and President Olusegun Obasanjo held talks on Tuesday on the country's economy.
Wolfowitz is in Nigeria to assess the progress of its economy and other World Bank‘s projects, a statement from the Presidency said on Tuesday.
It said Obasanjo told the World Bank boss that public spending had been moderate despite an increase in oil revenue.
Obasanjo said, "The use of (our) excess crude account has helped us to ensure that high crude oil prices do not lead to higher expenditure.
"Instead, we use the excess crude earnings to stabilise the budget in the event of a shortfall in earnings and this has helped to keep inflation low."
Obasanjo, also on Tuesday, said Nigeria welcomed investors into the country, but would not tolerate sharp practices.
The President was speaking to a delegation of the Committee of Friends and Associates of Chinese Business Community in Nigeria in Abuja.
'We want you to be legitimately involved in building our economy. We want our economy to grow like your own, but we want all things to be done legitimately. No bribery of officials or smuggling will be tolerated," he told the Chinese delegation.
He supported the proposal to establish Chinese - English Language schools in the country because "we need to understand each other if we will do business and grow together."
He also said China remained unique, because it was able to feed its 1.5billion people successfully, and had 5,000 years of recorded history.
The leader of the delegation, Chief Matthew Uwaekwe, had requested for "leniency" from the President on the seized goods from the Ojota Chinese Shopping Complex.