Edo, Japan in talk on massive rice production, youth empowerment

The governments of Edo state Nigeria, and Japan have begun talks on certain investment cooperations in the areas of massive production of rice, manufacturing, solid minerals exploitation, transportation and youth empowerment.

To begin taking action on these objectives, Governor Godwin Obaseki met with Japan’s First Secretary Econonmic-Development co‎operation of the Embassy of Japan , Gaku Sato at the Abuja Laison office of Edo state on yesterday.

The governor told journalists at the end of the meeting that training of youths in vocational and technological endeavours was at the heart of his discussion with Sato because it is strategic to his goal of people empowerment.

He noted that as part of his agreement with the Japanese, the technical colleges and training centres in the state would be improved upon.
“This is part of why we approached the Japanese Embassy under the various bilateral agreements we have in revamping the technical schools”.

Also,”as you know,Japan has a lot of experience in growing rice,and we have a large rice belt in the state and we ‎have looked at co-operating with them”

“This weekend in Benin,we have over 70 investor’s in agriculture who would be meeting with me .We are talking very direct with them and asking them to take off our agricultural products and rice farming practices so that we can engage our youths properly”‎, the governor said.

“Edo is a Transport hub,and as I discussed with the Ambassador,there are lots of Japanese companies investing in transportation and automobile and we would be exploring that opportunity in the area of manufacturing”.

“We are also intensifying efforts in the area of solid minerals, as we have 200 mining licences under the solid minerals while we are working out details on how to collaborate with the Ministry of solid minerals,so that some of our raw materials could be used in producing ceramics”, Obaseki informed.

Sato in his remarks said his government is already creating awareness about the business opportunities in Edo state, among Japanese investors.
“For most of them, Nigeria is Lagos,but we are working hard to ensure they focus attention on other states as we are already discussing on areas of investment with the governor”

“I am also discussing with our Japanese investors to pay attention to Edo state on areas of cooperation in training the youths and we have already set out modalities for this cooperation. Japanese companies who are into electrical appliances would also come in”

“After this session with the governor,we would have seminar to invite Japanese companies and experts from Edo states to exchange ideas and get Japanese businessmen to be enlightened about Edo”, Sato explained.