By Austin Okoro
May 22 (Newshour.com.ng) – The office of the Chief Economic Adviser to the government of Imo state has held stakeholders’ meeting to share ideas on how to bring even development to the state for a period of ten(10) years.
The programme which held at RockView hotels Owerri recently had all the stakeholders in Imo, both from the government, private sectors, civil society organizations CSOs, as well as the media.
Speaking to newsmen immediately after the meeting, the Chief Economic Adviser to the Imo state government, Professor Kenneth Amaechi said the essence of the stakeholders meeting was to share ideas with members of the public on how to have a 10-year development plan for the state. He noted that the governor of Imo state, His Excellency Distinguished Sen Hope Uzodinma is keen to have a 10-year development plan for the state, adding that his office is creating that with the support and supervision of the governor.
” We have done a bit in terms of looking at the existing data and information out there and based on that we created something which now need to be validated, and to share it with the Imo people and critical stakeholders both from the private sectors, CSOs, and the media.”
According to him, the essence being to get appropriate feedback and updates, adding that a lot of inputs have already been made from the gathering of the stakeholders, where some assumptions were challenged in a very constructive manner and some of the participants offered additional materials and insights that will keep them thinking.
Prof Amaechi stated that an essay competition would be conducted for the Imo Youths from the ages of 18 to 40 years, adding that they want Imo Youths to start dreaming of Imo state from now till 2040, and also to capture their voices, stressing that the competition will end this coming weekend; and whatever happens will add to the planning.
The Chief Economiist of the state noted that the governor, Sen. Hope Uzodinma is thinking beyond his tenure otherwise why will he want to do something beyond his tenure of at most eight (8) years.
