(Ugonne Uzoma, NAN)
Governor Hope Uzodinma of Imo has signed two bills aimed at improving on the development of the state into law.
One is to establish the Imo State Micro, Small and Medium Industries Development Agency and other related matters, and the second is to establish a Bureau to coordinate, supervise and monitor projects undertaken by donors or development partners in Imo State and other related matters.
According to a statement by his Chief Press Secretary, Mr Oguwike Nwachukwu, the governor said the bills mark yet another milestone in the administration’s efforts to ensure the development and growth of the state.
He listed objectives of the bills to include the empowerment of local artisans, specification of standards for them and ensuring that products being delivered to the markets are not only hygienic but fit for human consumption.
Uzodinma said the bills were necessary for establishing a body to supervise local manufacturing, entrepreneurship skills, private sector-driven activity and government intervention.
He also stressed the need for a bureau that would coordinate all interventions to ensure the proper management and implementation of the policies and ensure that the state derived the most value for them.
He regretted that the prior interventions from the World Bank, United States Agency for International Development (USAID), French and other development partners, in form of water, erosion control, rural developments, rural roads had no records or commensurate impact on the people.
The governor encouraged the international organisations to continue with their empowerment programmes bearing in mind that more coordinated, efficient and effective administrative organs had been put in place to satisfy their expectations.
The governor also commended the leadership of the House of Assembly for the speedy passage of the executive bills.
Earlier, while presenting the bill for the governor’s assent, the Speaker, Dr Chiji Collins said the bills had undergone all stages of legislative work.
Chiji said the first bill establishing an agency that would be a “vanguard Agency and focal point for rural industrialisation, poverty alleviation and eradication, technology acquisition and adaptation, as well as job creation and sustainable livelihood.”
He added that the agency would regulate activities of micro, small and medium scale industries in the state and ensure that goods manufactured were of high quality.
The speaker also said that the bills would go a long way in helping with the development of the state, while reiterating the readiness of the state legislature to work with the executive to move the state forward.
