Finland, Austria, Norway Partner Rivers On Education, Others

Excited with the huge developmental strides of the Governor Chibuike Amaechi-led administration in three European countries, Finland, Austria and Norway have expressed their desire to partner the state in education , energy and commerce.

Ambassadors of the three European countries to Nigeria made this known when they paid a courtesy visit to Governor Chibuike Amaechi last Tuesday in Government, Port Harcourt.

They expressed their desire to commence cooperation in the three sectors, which they believe, would boost multinational relations between Nigeria and their respective countries.

Finnish Ambassador to Nigeria, Mrs Riita Korpivaara remarked that education held huge potentials through which her country could provide support, “ we plan to visit the University of Port Harcourt to discuss education development in Rivers State and how our countries could partner with the state in the field of education, which is an area that is dear to me and to my country, Finnish”, she said.

On trade and commence, Mrs Korpivaara said more areas had to be exploited considering the fact that some of her country’s companies had established in Rivers State. “We are interested, especially in offshore business, energy and education which I already mentioned and I’am very glad that we have this opportunity now to come and see with our own eyes’, she said.

The Finnish envoy also indicated that the delegation while in the state would meet with Shell and visit the Port Harcourt Chamber of Commerce, non-governmental organisations to discuss environmental protection matters.

On his part, Norwegian Ambassador to Nigeria, Mr Rolf Ree lauded Amaechi’s administration for utilising state resources to develop education, adding that as the centre of oil industry in Nigeria, he was impressed, ‘to see how Port Harcourt is developing and using the resources of the oil industry to expand”.

Besides that, he noted that his country had benefited hugely from oil exploration in the country hence it would like to meet with representatives of environmental rights groups to explore areas of understanding.

In the same vein, Austrian Ambassador, Mr Joachim Oppinger expressed his country’s willingness to commence bilateral relations with Rivers State to develop the education sector.

Said Oppinger, “I see there is great investment in education going on, we just spoke about that in Rivers State and I think at the end of the day even a country which has such potentials in raw material, the real raw material in any country is the brain and I see that there is a stronger investment in the brain here”.

In his response, Governor Amaechi thanked the ambassadors for their visit, and assured that the Rivers State Government would partner with them in the area of education.

The governor observed that security has greatly improved which is responsible for the relocation of many oil companies headquarters back to the state, while blaming insecurity to poverty.

Amaechi said the state government is working hard in creating a social environment that caters for the wellbeing of everybody, and that agriculture provides a ready tool to check the menace of unemployment.

He used the visit to make appeal for more opportunities for Rivers State indigenes sent on scholarship in European countries.

‘I have already briefed you that we send about 300 children every year to United Kingdom and Canada and that we have tried to exploit the free opportunity in Germany, that we were able to send only 15, then we tried to exploit the one in Brazil when the Ambassador spoke to us, out of the 50 chances, they gave us, we were able to send only six.