Uzodimma: Imo Launches Industrial Policy, Sets for Business
Governor Hope Uzodimma of Imo State has launched the Imo Industrial Policy, with a promise that the State is now ready for national and international economic businesses that go with industrialisation.
Performing the ceremony at the Sam Mbakwe Exco Chambers Government House Owerri, the Governor said the Industrial Policy would “serve as the State’s strategic master plan to stimulate the growth and development of all sectors of the economy of Imo State, identify and prioritize the low hanging fruits for immediate harvesting.”
He said that the government has set out to identify all the economic potentials where Imo State has comparative advantage with the aim of clearly outlining how the potentials can be harnessed into going enterprises in the form of countless small and medium scale enterprises.
The governor used the occasion to call on investors to take advantage of the robust and friendly investment climate that his administration has deliberately put in place, to invest in different areas of the economy in Imo State, particularly in digital economy, agro industry, tourism, oil and gas, mining, fabrication and in the allied industry that will be thrown up from the Imo State Green Revolution Initiative (ISGRI).
In his presentation, the Director General Imo State Investment Promotion Agency, Dr. Jude Nzeako said the policy will among other things be a road map to strategic Industrial and economic investment of the State.
He said it will enable the government to intervene in the areas of comparative advantage, stimulate the interest in the Local Government Areas on discovery of natural resources in such areas, and bring and collate other interests on economic development together.
In his remarks earlier, the Chief Economic Adviser to the Governor, Prof. Kenneth Amaeshi said what the Industrial Policy requires most is political will like that of the Governor as well as policy based on pragmatism.
For him, “the Policy will create jobs, companies will come to establish and invest in Imo State and with the sustainable potentials resulting from the abundant local natural resources of oil and gas, mines and agriculture and others the sky will be the limit of Imo State in achieving the industrial Policy.”
Earlier the Regional Director of UNIDO in Nigeria Mr. Bankole Jean congratulated the Governor for the initiative and acknowledged that it is the first time he has seen an inclusive policy that even involves Heads of Intelligence and Security Agencies.