The President of Enugu Chamber of Commerce, Industry, Mines and Agriculture, ECCIMA, Dr. Ifeanyi Okoye has said that Nigerian economy especially the industrial sector will benefit more from Asian countries than it would from either the UK or United States of America.
He stated this when he led council delegation of ECCIMA to Vanguard as part of preparations for the 25th Enugu International trade fair coming up by March. It is themed: “Increasing the competitiveness of Nigerian products in global market.”
He said that companies from China, India, Malaysia and Indonesia will feature prominently among the 25 foreign companies expected to participate in the fair.
According to him, “The real strategists are the Asian countries and we in the business know that it is easier to learn from them than from all these other fully developed nations.
If you go to a place like US and UK, you will hardly be allowed to enter their factories but if you step into any company in any of these Asian countries, they will take you to the end of their factories, eager to show you what they are doing.
So, we are happy, at least that most of the Asian companies are coming, China, India, Malaysia and Indonesia.”
He explained that the participation of foreign firms will provide opportunities for local companies to learn and interact with the foreign counterparts which are what is needed for local companies to begin to thrive.
“Nigerians are clamouring to use made in Nigeria goods. But that choice is a matter of quality, because if something does not have a good quality, who wants to take it?
And to get to some level of quality, you must at least imitate, observe, and learn. So we need some of these companies to come with whatever they do, and then with our manufacturers, that is the essence of this trade fair, they will come together and interact and we believe that our manufacturers will learn a lot.
“We cannot grow by operating alone, so we usually feel that it is an opportunity for our local manufacturers, our business men, our intellectuals to interact with some of these foreign companies that are already established and at the same, we have some companies that will accompany them.
So that is the key essence of probably having them around. We will benefit and they too will benefit by making their sales.”
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