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FG, Chinese, Edo partner on Benin River Port, Industrial Park, others

By Michael Egbejule, Benin City
04 September 2018   |   4:14 am
Edo State looks set to secure the Chinese President Xi Jinping’s $60 billion financial support for Africa, which was announced at the 2018 Beijing Summit under the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) in China.  

Edo State

• Industrialisation policy sets state on growth path, says Obaseki
• PDP decry insecurity as gunmen abduct APC Chairman in Akoko-Edo 

Edo State looks set to secure the Chinese President Xi Jinping’s $60 billion financial support for Africa, which was announced at the 2018 Beijing Summit under the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) in China.

Jinping noted that in the next three years, China would float eight major initiatives with African countries to realise a closer China-Africa community of shared destiny.

He said China was interested in industry, investment, trade, infrastructure, health, culture, environmental protection and security.

Speaking, Governor Godwin Obaseki with Federal Government officials in Beijing yesterday engaged representatives of the Chinese government and China Harbour Engineering Company (CHEC) Limited, in discussions to secure final investment decisions and commence development of the Benin River Port project, Benin Industrial Park and Modular Refinery.

Obaseki was accompanied by some of his aides, Director General, Nigerian Investments Promotion Council (NIPC), Yewande Sadiku and Acting Director General, Nigeria Governors Forum (NGF), Secretariat, Abdullateef Shittu, among others.

However, he said the state’s Industrial Development Policy has put Edo on an economic growth path in absorbing local manpower.

He explained that the state has been working on the comprehensive industrialisation policy with the United Nations Industrial Development Organisation (UNIDO), which he said, would be unveiled soon.

Obaseki noted that his administration has taken steps in pursuing the Industrial Development Policy that would create job opportunities, as well as ensure sustainable economic growth and development.

The governor assured that these will add value to raw materials and products that will be sourced from the state and neighbouring states for export through the Benin River Port in Gelegele.

Meanwhile, following the abduction of APC Chairman in Akoko-Edo Local Council and four others at the weekend, Edo State Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Dan Orbih, has decried insecurity in the state and country.

Orbih said it was shameful and worrisome that government could no longer secure the lives of Edo people and Nigerians at large, which according to him, was an indication that the present government has failed to provide security for its citizens.

He said this while receiving over 420 defectors from the APC led by a former APC ward chairman, Peter Itabor, in Ogbona, Etsako Central Local Council.

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