Business
Imoke Counts Success Of S’South Economic Summit
The Chairman of the South-South Governors Forum, Sen. Liyel Imoke, says the success of the just-concluded second South-South Economic Summit has proved “skeptics” of its propriety wrong.
Imoke, who is the governor of Cross River, made the remark on Saturday at the closing ceremony of the three-day summit held in Asaba, Delta.
He recalled that at the first summit held in Calabar, Cross River, in April, 2009, some skeptics had dubbed it a “talk show” and said that it could not be sustained.
Imoke explained that the views of such persons were because they believed that the people of the region were not united and could not speak with one voice.
“But the success of this second South-South economic summit hosted by Delta has proved those skeptics wrong as it has shown that the people of the region were more committed and united.”
Imoke also said that the success of the summit reflected a positive direction for the region in its development pursuit.
He recalled that the Asaba summit ought to have been held in 2011 but explained that the delay was caused by interruptions in governance in some states in the region, arising from electoral cases in court.
Imoke stressed that the summit was not a talk-show but one designed to bring stakeholders in the public and private sector together to dissect the potentials of the region and chart ways for harnessing them collectively.
The governor emphasised that the time for the people of the region to take charge of their destiny was now, adding that “to achieve this is for the BRACED states to build on the recommendations of the summit.”
He noted that it was laudable that the people of the region had come together to chart a way of taking the economy of the area to greater height.
“The future is yours and only you can determine it. Our challenge in the next one year when the third summit will hold is to report back the progress made.”
Imoke announced that the third and fourth economic summits would be hosted by Rivers and Akwa-Ibom, respectively.