In the next few years, the Buhari administration would continue to pursue a plan for manufacturing and massive production of goods in the country, Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, SAN, said.
In that effort, the Federal Government will ally with business interests who can facilitate the manufacturing plan, Osinbajo added.
The vice president stated this at a meeting in the Presidential Villa with a delegation from Innoson Group and some Chinese business interests led by Chief Innocent Chukwuma, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Innoson Group.
According to him, “manufacturing in Nigeria is a primary objective of this government; it is a work we intend to do in the next few years to manufacture and produce in Nigeria as much as we can.”
He explained that it was because of the administration’s commitment to spur manufacturing and local production that the initiative of Innoson Group to work with Chinese partners was being addressed as a “strategic collaboration.”
The initiative, the vice president says, “is bound to yield very good fruits and do very well,” adding also that the timing is right “as we are at a point that we must engage technological solutions in our development plans.”
Osinbajo then explained the importance of competition and competitive pricing in such an effort.
“In all we try to do, we believe there must be competition, competitive prices and plans.
“We are looking forward to working with you in the next few months to realize the plans that you have laid out,” the vice president noted.
Earlier in his remark, Chukwuma said the Chinese firms had decided to invest about $1B in the Nigerian economy within the next 12-24 months.
Chukwuma said Innoson Group was collaborating with three Chinese firms: Shangdong Broadcasting Group, and Shangdong Cable Interactive Services regarded as leading biggest TV operators, and Inspur Group, said to be China’s foremost leader in Cloud Computing solution suppliers and IT service provider.
He said: “a credit facility of $300m for local production and supply of 5-8 million Set-Top Boxes for the Digital Switch-Over in broadcasting in the country to meet a target date of June 2017.
“An investment of $100m to establish technology-based Direct-To-Home Digital Bing Television Stations.
“A further investment of $600m for Smart City CCTV camera and IT solutions for taxation, both using Cloud Computing, and E-Education IT solutions with big data centers in all federal universities and polytechnics in the country.’’
According to the Chairman of Innoson Group,“every plan to make a success of all these projects have been concluded between our two parties.”
The Deputy Minister of the Communist Party in Shandong Province and Chairman of the Shandong Broadcasting Group, Mr Liu Baoju, and Mr. Huang Gang, Senior Vice President of Inspur Group were among dignitaries in the business delegation at the meeting.
Source: NAN
No comments:
Post a Comment