Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the National Economic Team, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala
A special Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting has been scheduled for today at 10am to consider the draft copy of 2012 budget in preparation for its transmission to the National Assembly by President Goodluck Jonathan, soon.
This is to give fillip to the pledge by the Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the National Economic Team, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, that next year’s Appropriation Bill would be presented to the National Assembly earlier this year than in the past.
THISDAY gathered that the emergency meeting of the FEC is sequel to the scheduled trip of Jonathan to the United Nations General Assembly next week. It was learnt that the meeting was brought forward because the cabinet prefers that every member of the FEC was in attendance when such a crucial deliberation would hold.
To ensure that the meeting becomes a reality, the economic team met Thursday, in addition to several other meetings in the Villa, to ensure that the push for an economically and socially viable Nigeria was not a mirage at the end of the tenure of the administration. The meetings, THISDAY further gathered, was part fulfilment of Jonathan’s pledge to continue to provide conducive environment for investment.
This came on the heels of a reassurance by Jonathan that the present administration was prepared to encourage every investor that was ready to put his money into the production sector of the Nigerian economy. He said this when Bayelsa State Governor, Mr. Timipre Sylva, led officials of Hyundai Heavy Industries of South Korea, to the Presidential Villa. The firm is to build a $7-billion shipyard that is expected to provide employment for over 2,000 youths in the state.
Jonathan told the President and Chief Executive Officer of the company, Mr. Jai-Seong Lee, that his administration believed that foreign investment flow into the country would bolster Nigeria’s efforts at generating more employment for its “youthful” population.
He assured the visitors that he would do all within his powers to support the project. “Hyundai has a long-standing relationship with Nigeria. You have always played a key role in our economy, especially in our oil industry. We appreciate what you have done and we are elated by your latest investment in a shipyard project at Brass,” Jonathan said.
He assured the Hyundai chief that relevant government ministries and agencies would be on ground to give the firm all necessary support to ensure that the shipyard was completed on schedule. Sylva said the company, which investment was a major breakthrough for his administration, would have a turnover of over $20 billion.
He said when completed, the shipyard would build and service ships as well as provide floating vessels for storage and processing of petroleum products - services that are currently being brought into the country from foreign shipyards. “You will agree with me that Mr. President did well by signing the local content law and since then it's been working. This is the first example of how that law can really empower Nigerians.
“Hyundai heavy industries is going to invest about $7 billion and we are going to create initially about 2,000 jobs and for a state like Bayelsa that has youths problem, you know what that means to us and that is why I am very excited and I thought I should bring them to Mr. President to give them words of encouragement which he has done.
“They are going to invest in a shipyard; that means most of the top sites in the oil companies would be built in Bayelsa State. They are going to invest 100 per cent which is the beauty of it. What we are doing is provide the enabling environment. We have acquired the land and we have given it to them and we are building a road to where the industry is to be located. For us, the gain is in the jobs they are going to create and the taxes they will be paying to us when they commence operations,” he explained.
He said construction would start next year, while the first phase would be completed between 2013 and 2014.
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