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“WARRI INDUSTRIAL BUSINESS PARK IS THE TOUCHSTONE OF OUR INDUSTRIALISATION PROGRAMME”
Last February, a year ago, we were here together in this hall, talking about this big dream of building the Warri Industrial Business Park. A lot of background details were presented, we inspected the location to evaluate its suitability. Hopes and expectations were in the air. Today, I am pleased that this big dream is now moving closer to becoming a reality. 2. Unveiling the master plan for the Park is one such major step and it is important for everyone to know where we are going and how this project will impact on the economy of Delta State and the country. It is also important for businesses and investors to see what we have in stock and why investing and being part of this project makes a lot of business sense. The quality of thinking and planning involved in this project is an excellent one and we could not have asked for a better team of professionals to design this Park. 3. Jurong of Singapore has done a magnificent work as can be expected from a global firm, I am impressed by what they have packaged. The business plan by KPMG is worthy of commendation, it gives some picture of the prospects of this project. We never doubted our initiative to undertake to industrialize our economy, NO, not for one second. What has been for me, remarkable, and I believe you would have taken note of it also, is the vast possibilities and interests that have been shown. 4. Knowing that this project stands a good chance of succeeding and becoming a touchstone of our industrialization progamme, should give us the confidence to proceed without looking back. For businesses and investors that were unsure of what we have been talking about, now the picture is on the table. I am sure your decision making process would be easier. If you have been pondering whether we are serious, I want to say it here loud and clear and with all firmness at my disposal—we are very serious. 5. Delta economy in the last few years have really changed, do not let the train leave you behind. Across the state, our infrastructure development programme is moving as fast as possible. The Airport in Asaba almost completed and should be ready in April. The expansion of the Osubi Airport runway has begun. The dualisation of 167 kilometres of Ughelli-Asaba road leading to the huge Onitsha market is on course. The dualisation of 30 Koko-Ugbenu road leading to Koko export free zone is being constructed. Construction of the Asaba ICT Park should begin this year. We are committing enormous amount of money into the building of the state Independent Power Programme (IPP) as well as the federal government National Independent Power Programme (NIPP) initiative. We are making every effort to encourage the federal government to dredge the Warri port, the Escravos Bar, so that big ships can berth easily. We are getting their attention and hopefully that should happen shortly. 6. I just touched on a few initiatives we have begun as a government. There are more, many more, but let me stop at these ones and talk a little more about the Park. 7. In adopting the model of creating or facilitating industrial and business clusters, we are seeking ways to encourage greater efficiency and maximisation of resource management. We know the availability of common services in the park from sewage, power, water supply and other infrastructure means one thing—cost is reduced. And when a business is able to reduce cost, that business is well on the way to becoming a success. Notwithstanding the model that is eventually accepted, what cannot be disputed is that locating your operations within the Park confers great benefits that cannot be obtained elsewhere. 8. The underlying vision for this Park is to ensure that the impediments and constraints businesses face are reduced. I talked about the infrastructure expansion in the state is all targeted at making sure that we creating the right environment for everyone. The other benefit of building a Park as such as this is an obvious one like employment opportunities for the people. Employment, from the highly skilled to semi-skilled are created. So there will be something for people to do, from the construction to final opening of the place. 9. It is not just employment that will come out of this, new towns will be created, existing businesses will find they have new and sophisticated clientele to service. We know this will happen because of the growth that will come to this city, and this by itself poses the additional challenge of a further expansion of the level of infrastructure. 10. The government’s three point agenda of Peace and Security, Human Capital and Infrastructure development, has always been geared towards economic development. We are now well on the way to doing just that. Building this Park and other supporting infrastructure is in our view, the right way to achieve our aims of harnessing other resources available to us. Our vision of building a Delta Without Oil is on irreversible course, and I am sure you would agree every step we take to make this dream a reality secures our future and the future of our children. 11. Now with the amnesty in place, we believe that programmes like this give hope to our young people that we are serious about ending their feeling of despair, that we want to develop our communities and grow our economy. We want them to give Peace a chance. It is only when there is peace that business and investors can feel safe to come and be part of our community. 12. For a project that will cost N 100 billion, the state government is scarcely in a position to fund this project alone and it is not even planning to do so. The private sector has a vital role to play, they have to invest and drive this. The federal government also has a role to play, investing in it, granting us several incentives and support. The International community, the International Oil Companies can be and in fact should be part of this; they now have a programme that has a direct impact on the lives of the people and the communities in their area of operations. You want stability, security and progress in the Niger Delta region; invest in the Warri Industrial Business Park. The beauty of this initiative is that it has great possibility of succeeding and so when we say invest, we are not asking for handouts. No! We know it has the potential to give impressive returns to investors that we will all be proud of. 13. It is as simple as that. Now with your inputs, awareness and contribution in the final draft of the Master plan, this project becomes a project that is owned by all us. 14. For our partners, Arco Petrochemical, I say well done for showing faith and continuing to be part of this joint initiative. You are setting examples for the private sector that it is possible to partner with government and pull off a coup. I charge others to emulate this company. Delta state means business as one of slogans say and we will not stop encouraging businesses to come and be part of our programmes, the sky is the limit for those do so. Thank you for listening. OFFICE OF THE GOVERNOR, GOVERNMENT HOUSE, ASABA FEBRUARY 18, 2010   
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