… as China establishes $1.5bn shoe factory
Governor Okezie Ikpeazu of Abia State has said his trips to foreign countries for foreign direct investments have started yielding dividends with his recent trip to China, which has attracted a $1.5 million shoe factory in Aba.
Ikpeazu disclosed this at his office in Government House Umuahia while briefing newsmen on the outcome of his recent trip to China.
He disclosed that the shoe manufacturing firm known as Hua -Jian Shoe Industry, Dongguan, Guangzhou, China, had entered into an understanding with Abia State for the shoes factory to be established in Aba.
The Abia governor said based on the agreement, 70 percent of the shoes manufactured would be exported to meet the orders of customers abroad, saying during the trip, he visited a machinist who fabricated machines for shoe making adding that the state government was ready to acquire its own line of automated shoe products.
“Our option is to bring this factory so that the crusade for Made in Aba will change to come and Make in Abia. The factory will build capacity for 200 persons which will in turn yield 40,000 workers. It will scale up the standard of shoe making in our state and in one year our people will be at par with Chinese. Our people will work with them before we buy our machines,” said Ikpeazu.
The Abia governor also said his trip to Atlanta, USA had started yielding dividends with the receipt of a container load of medical equipment worth millions of dollars free of charge while the state government spent only $25,000 to clear the goods.
He further disclosed that Turkey, which was one of the countries he also visited, had also sent medical equipment worth $200 million to the state.
Ikpeazu said that in order to sustain the Abia state Industrial Development strategy 9 hectares of land had been set aside near the boundary between Abia and Rivers for Industrial Processing Zone where all the facilities would be established by investors.
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