It is with great pleasure that I welcome you to the website of the Mauritanian Embassy in Beijing.

This site is a window open to all aspects of political, economical, and social and cultural life of our country and the many areas of cooperation between the People's Republic of China and the Islamic Republic of Mauritania.

This Cooperation reflects the traditional and exemplary relations of friendship between the two countries.

In this regard, two numbers are emblematic:
- The Volume of trade was 1.096 billion U.S dollars in 2009 against 700 million U.S dollars in 2008, despite the Global Financial crisis.
- The project to extend the Port of Nouakchott, amounting to 2 billion yuans (RMB), or about 300 millions U.S dollars, is the 2nd largest project in terms of budget that China dedicated to Africa.

This page will, also, inform about huge investments potentialities in our country which has, in this respect, considerable, comparative and competitive advantages.

In fact, Mauritania has:
- An advantageous geographical position which puts it at the crossroads of North and Sub-Sahara Africa, and at the crossroad of major maritime routes of the Atlantic, between Europe, the Middle East, West Africa and the two Americas.

- a strategy oriented toward private sector development and public / private partnership;
- investment opportunities in sectors with high added value: Fisheries, Agro Industry;
- extractible reserves with high potential for exploitation (mining, oil, gas);
- Infrastructure projects underway, Mauritania is undergoing full infrastructures development process.

Warranty and protection of private investments are insured by:
- Political stability and good governance, since the election of His Excellency Mohamed OULD ABDEL AZIZ as President of the Republic, after free and transparent elections, held on July 19, 2009;
- A legal and institutional environment favorable to investments.
- an attractive new investment code, establishing a perfect equality of treatment between local and foreign investors, and ensuring a free repatriation of invested capital and wages of alien employees ;
- incentives tax;
- An array of legal texts which promote and ensure the protection of private investments;
- creation of a Ministry in charge of the private investments and a one-stop office for all formalities related to the creation of companies and advantages under the investment code;
- Liberalization of the banking system and modernization of the financial sector;
- revising of the mining code and adoption of a standard mining convention that guarantee the allocation of mining rights on the basis of international tenders;

In tourism, our country has a rich and varied potential
- The tourist can observe a striking contrast between the sea and the desert;
- 750 km of coastline free from pollution;
- Two nature reserves (Banc d `Arguin and Diawling);
- An incredible variety of birds and migratory wildlife;
- A rich fauna and flora;
- Historical Cities classified World Heritage of mankind, by UNESCO (Chinguetti, Adrar in Oualata Tichitt ...);
- Diverse and contrasting landscapes;
- A rich and varied handicrafts, famous for its delicacy, result of the genius and creativity of our artisans;
- An ancient civilization, rich in its diversity - united by Islam, our religion, made of tolerance and openness, and cultivating a consummate art of legendary hospitality;
- An integrated tourism, eco-tourism, tourism business, trekking, etc… are practiced peacefully.

We hope this site will help our Chinese friends and foreigners to cover every angle of Mauritania and we ensure that all personnel of the Embassy of Mauritania in Beijing staff, is at their disposal to help them with administrative formalities related to their travel and stay in Mauritania.

Mauritania, which is located at the southwest end of the desert and has direct contact with black Africa in Neolithic times, has been the intermediary between the Maghreb and black sub-Saharan Africa.

Several centuries before the Hijrah, the people of North Africa, through use of the camel, played a decisive role in the domination of the Sahara.

In the 10th century, the Almoravids gathered some tribes of the Adrar. From their capital, Azougui, they created a vast empire in the north, encompassing west of the Maghreb and Andalusia in southern Spain. In the south, after their victory over Aoudaghost and Kumbi Saleh, they established their dominion over the whole empire of Ghana in the eleventh century.

From the late 12th century, southern Mauritania became an outside province of the two great empires of the Sudanese, Mali and Songhay. Routes between Niger and the Maghreb in the 14th century favored the exploitation of saltworks Teghaza and the growth of the small city of Oualata.

Other towns, such as Chinguetti and Adrar, are flourished. The Portuguese navigators passed Cape Bojador in 1434 and made contact during their annual sailing, with the Moors of the Banc d'Arguin (1445) and reached the estuary of the Senegal in 1446.
Almost at the same time, Hassan tribes, an Arab nomads who came from Upper Egypt, occupied Western Sahara and then settled in northern Mauritania, driving 29 the Sanhaja tribes away or submitting them.

In the 17th century, following a reform movement led by the scholar Nacer Eddine, the tension between these tribes (Mghafra) and (Zouaya) led to a long war between them that lasted for over thirty years. At the end of the war, which was marked by the battle of Tertillas, a new state of Mauritania took hold. The Maghfras and Zouaya formed the authority of the sword and the authority of the pen respectively.

New cities grew to be homes of Muslim culture and regional trade centers, such as Tinigui, Tidjikja Tichit, Kasr el-Barka, Rachid, while former colonial powers, Chenguit, Ouadane and Oualata were still involved in small caravan traffic.

But little by little, a regional organization of the tribes took hold. Thus the four major emirates were born and survived in spite of fratricidal wars, including Trarza, Brakna, Tagant and Adrar.

The Mus l im ruler s are set t led in southern borders, such as the Fulani state of Fouta Toro (XVII ~ XVIII centuries), and the kingdom of Oualo who were almost in permanent conflict with the Moorish emirates of Trarza and Brakna.

In Senegal, gum trade, an essential activity of the traders of St. Louis, was practiced along the river and the Atlantic shore. The strong Portendick and coves in the north of the estuary were the sites where the colonial ambitions clashed in the 18th century. From 1815, the sinking of Medusa, stranded on the Banc d'Arguin, announced the growing maritime traffic of European colonial fleets.

The Senegal River valley, an area of French expansion, route of commerce penetration of St. Louis, was also the axis of a colonial conquest. Faidherbe, accusing tribes Trarza and Brakna be responsible for the insecurity of relationships in the High River, annexed the Oualo in 1855 and prepared for the occupation of the Mauritanian shore.

In Trarza, attempts to establish peace between clans and tribes which were divided by tribal warfare took place in the Koranic principles. Efforts to unify the Moorish world clashed with imperial colonial projects of the association director, Xavier Coppolani, scaffolding since 1899 as a Western Mauritania.

Despite Spanish opposition, whose interests in the north of Cape Blanco were recognized in June 1900, the French protectorate was first imposed on emirates Trarza and Brakna and Tagant. The strong resistance of the Moorish tribes of the north, led to the occupation of Adrar in 1908, and Hodh in 1911.

After the Franco-Spanish agreement of 1912 establishing the borders (Smara expedition in 1913), the link with the Algerian Sahara, was performed in 1920. Mauritania became a colony of French West Africa in its borders of the early century in 1920.

·In 1855: start of the colonization which has lead to cultural rejection and to an armed resistance.
·In 1903: Mauritania has been called ? protoctorat des pays maure
·In 1904: Mauritania became civil territory
·In 1905: the administrator Xavier Coppolani was assassinated in Tidjikja
·In 1920: Mauritania declared French colony.
·The resistance had lead to numerous battles:
·“ Oumtounsi” which lead Lt. Mc Mahon to death.
·Other resistant took weapons against the French colonization in the north and center of the country and Along Valley of Senegal River.
·In 1934: End of the armed resistance.
·In 1945: Mauritania declared ? Territoire d’Outre-Mer ? of the France.
·In 1957: Mauritania adopted the ? loi Deferre.
·In 1958: The Islamic Republic of Mauritania gained the intern autonomy.
·In 1960: on 28th November, Mauritania obtains full National Independence from France.
Administratively, Mauritania is organized into 13 regions (wilayas) and 53 departments (moughataas).

Other important dates
·July 20th, 1991, adoption of the referendum, to institute a democratic and liberal constitution in the country
·July 25th, 1991, Proclamation of pluralism regulations and freedom of press,
·In 1992 - Election of the parliament (Assembly and Senate)
All these institutions work today properly to guarantee stability and sustainable freedom necessary for development and civil peace.

Constitution
Preamble
Trusting in the omnipotence of Allah, the Mauritanian people proclaims its commitment to ensure the integrity of its territory, its independence and national unity and assume its free political, economic and social.

With its spiritual values and influence of its civilization, it also proclaims solemnly, its attachment to Islam and the principles of democracy as they have been defined by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights of 10 December 1948 and the African Charter on Human and Peoples Rights of 28 June 1981 and in other international conventions to which Mauritania has signed.

Considering that freedom, equality and human dignity can be assured only in a society that enshrines the rule of law, mindful to create sustainable conditions for a harmonious social development, respectful of the precepts of Islam, the only source of law, and open to the demands of the modern world, the Mauritanian people proclaims, in particular, the security of intangible rights and principles below:
- The right to equality;
- Freedoms and fundamental rights of human beings;
- The right of ownership;
- Political freedom and freedom of organization and association;
- The economic and social rights;
- Freedom of press
- The rights attached to the family, the basic unit of Islamic society.

the Mauritanian people, Recognizing the need for closer ties with the brotherly peoples, Muslim, Arab and African, proclaims that work towards achieving the unity of the Greater Maghreb, the Arab nation and Africa, consolidation of peace in the world.

Mauritania implements a democratic system, the first Constitution was adapted on May 1961, and on July 12, 1991, the Constitution established the principle of separation of executive, legislation and judicial power as well as multi-party system.

The president is the head of state and is elected during general election for 5 years and can be re-elected for a second term only.

The parliament has two chambers: the National Assembly and Senate.

Others institutions
·Constitutional Council
·Islamic High Council
·Economic and Social Council
·High Court of Justice
·Supreme Court
·Account Court
·Mediator of the Republic
·National Commission of Human Rights
·High Authority for Press and Broadcasting.