The National Vice President Association of Chambers of Commerce and Industries, Mines and Agriculture, Dr. Bala Abubakar, has said that until Gombe State establishes trade facilitation centres, its purpose of building industrial parks might not be realised.
Abubakar, made this observation in an interview with journalists at the three-day maiden Gombe Investment Summit, held at the International Conference Centre.
Recall that the Gombe State Government had invested into a multi-billion naira Muhammadu Buhari Industrial Park in Dadinkowa, Yalmatu Deba Local Government Area of the state.
According to Abubakar, for government and the people to benefit from the impact of investment there should be trade facilitation, stressing that it would focus on resolving challenges relating from stringent government policies, harsh operational environment and unfriendly tax policy.
He said, “The trade facilitation centre in Bauchi will be commissioned next month. If we have trade facilitation centres in place, that would help the government to look at the laws and the policies of the government that are unfriendly to the business environment and investment, so that there will be a kind of rejig of such policies, amendment of such laws to make their environment very conducive for trading and investment.
“Trade facilitation centres are here to fill the gap that exist that hinders the smooth movement of goods services and persons from one trading centre to another. When we establish trade facilitation centres, apart from fulfilling that gap, the facilitation centres will say, okay, this is the entire investment opportunities that we have in a state.
“This is how we need to maximise it. For example, Gombe is establishing industrial park, that park will not operate optimally and meet the aspirations of the citizens of Gombe State until they have a functional trade facilitation centre which will make that park to operate optimally to the benefit of that centre and the economy of the state and the country as a whole. It is very important you can’t do without them.”
While commending the state government for the boldness to organise the investment summit, Abubakar called for synergy between the chamber of commerce, the Northern region and public and private enterprises.
“The Summit has provided the platform whereby there is a convergence of government representatives, private sector and international donor agencies. By it there is total articulation of ideas, not just how to move investment in Gombe State forward, but how to move investment in the entire North-East Region forward.
“Before now, there was no serious synergy between the government on one hand and the private sector under the leadership of Chambers of Commerce. If there was very serious synergy virtually we wouldn’t have been having the problem we are having now relating the investment trade facilitation and so on.
“So, what is required is for the government particularly the North-East and the northern part of the country, to have very strong synergy between the public and private sector under the Chambers of Commerce.
“The most important partnership all over the world is public-private partnership and the Chambers of Commerce is the umbrella body of the private sector. If there is this strong synergy between the government and the private sector virtually they wouldn’t have been having kind of this economic set back that we have been suffering all along in this country.
“Because one cannot do without the other, the government cannot do without the private sector because government generate revenue through the private sector and the private sector cannot do without the government, because government has to create a private enabling environment for the private sector to operate. They need each other to operate,” Abubakar said.
He added, “Let our government bring the private sector closer through the Chambers of Commerce so that we have strong partnerships, because the Chamber of Commerce will travel around the world from one country to another, they have the responsibility to attract whatever investment that is required at state level but they need to have that strong relationship to be able to succeed. That is just the missing link.”
