Abia State Governor Dr Okezie Ikpeazu and his New York State United States (U.S.) counterpart, Andrew Cuomo, met in the U.S. to discussed bilateral cooperation and economic relations between the two states.
The discussion, which held in New York, centered on how such cooperation would positively impact on the Abia economy, and effective harnessing of Abia's natural endowments, creating employment opportunities and external markets for her products, and production of more food for the citizenry.
Cuomo represented by his Director for New Americans, Dr Laura V. Gonzalez-Murphy, told Ikpeazu, who was represented by his deputy Hon. Ude Oko Chukwu, that "We want to equip people to become good entrepreneurs and we advise that Abia state stations somebody here in New York towards enhancing cooperation between our states."
He added that the New York State supports immigration, and thus considers every resident as a member of the New York family, saying "we also provide attorney for any immigrant in need." About 200,000 Abians are said to be resident in New York, some of them have naturalized and became US citizens.
Governor Ikpeazu had long before the meeting, appointed an Aide in the person of Dr Ngozi Ogbonna-Erondu, also in attendance at the meeting, as Coordinator, Abia State Diaspora Brain Trust, "to aggregate the enormous talent of our people who wish to contribute to the development of our state and engage with anybody who wishes to attract any project to the state in any form or manner."
The Governor listed the desired areas of interest for cooperation between Abia State and the New York State as: market for Made in Aba/Abia products, investment in the agriculture, Oil/Gas, large/Medium/Small Scale Enterprises, and Educational Exchange Programmes.
