The public and private sectors of the Rivers State economy may get closer in the coming months. This may be due to practical steps being taken by the new leadership of the organized private sector in the state.
Now, the state’s Commissioner for Commerce and Industry, Nancy Nwankwo, has commended the President of Port Harcourt Chamber of Commerce (PHCCIMA), the chief, Nabil Saleh, and his team for their striving aimed at taking PHCCIMA to a new height since assumption of office.
The commissioner made this assertion when she paid a courtesy call on the president at the Chamber secretariat in Port Harcourt. She expressed satisfaction in the series of innovations put in place by the new administration, and restated commitment of her ministry to continue to work closely with PHCCIMA to achieve the course of businesses in the state.
Earlier on the PHCCIMA president took the Commissioner on a tour of the secretariat and called for greater collaboration between the Chamber and the Ministry with a view to positively marketing the state to investors.
According to him, the new PHCCIMA administration is entrenching a dynamism that would create value for membership and by extension the business community in the state. He said PHCCIMA has put in place One-Stop-Shop business system with the objective of facilitating administrative procedures and enhance the ability of members to do everything they needed to do for a business in a single location. This would also improve coordination between member businesses and the various different business support entities in the country to enable a variety of procedures to be completed more quickly and accurately.
He said: “We have opened channels of association with various embassies including, the US, French, Turkey, Syria, China, Dubai, Brazil among others to facilitate business linkages, build partnerships and open frontiers for trade missions for our members”.
According to him, “In less than a week, we will launch the PHCCIMA App which would help to project the activities of the chamber. We are presently the first e-chamber of commerce in the country, going digital with electronic membership ID Card, 80 per cent paperless activities and a membership portal. Furthermore, we are presently building an e-payment system even as we have a smart workspace, an electronic staff attendance system, an e membership directory, among others”, he said.
The PHCCIMA boss emphasized the need to bridge the gap between the public and the organized private sectors to make business seamless for the business community. According to him, “There is a need to complement each other to move the state forward, especially in the area of positively marketing the state to investors. “Together we need to preach the gospel and dwell on the positive potentials of the state to give investors confidence and make them understand that Rivers State is safe for business”, he said.
The highlight of the event was the presentation of lapel to the Commissioner by the PHCCIMA president.
