Monrovia — The Chinese Ambassador accredited here, Ambassador Lin songtain says he will exert every effort to assist Liberia become self-sufficient in rice production and turn Liberia into a rice export nation.

Ambassador Lin said he would impress upon his government to assist Liberia in this direction.

According to the Chinese Ambassador, Liberia has great potential to feed herself and other countries.

The Ambassador spoke with The NEWS last Friday in an interview in observance of the first anniversary of renewed bilateral relations between his country and Liberia.

Liberia and the People's Republic of China renewed bilateral ties October 11, 2003. Since then, the Government of the two countries have reaffirmed their commitment to strengthening friendly cooperation based on mutual respect and benefits for the peoples of both countries.

Reflecting on his tour of duty, Ambassador Lin said he has traveled to many parts of Liberia and has observed that Liberia has energetic manpower and fertile land.

But he said Liberia needs trained and skilled manpower and a people's centered national leadership to initiate and accelerate socio-economic development programs to move the nation forward. Ambassador Lin acknowledged that industrial development does add more value to a nation's resources. As such, he said he would encourage Chinese manufacturing companies to invest in Liberia.

With this, the Chinese Ambassador said small factories can be built to process raw material and assemble products.

He said such initiatives would demand skilled and technical manpower. The long term benefit of this he said would be the transferred of technology.

But he pointed out that all of this can only be achieved in a peaceful and stable environment.

"No investor would want to risk his investment in an environment that is unstable and plague with violence," Ambassador Lin said.

He therefore urged Liberians to work harder to sustain the prevailing peace and security.