By Our reporter
The Ebonyi state governorship candidate of the All Progressives Grand Alliance, APGA, in the 2023 elections Prof Ben Odoh has promised to create employment opportunities for the youths in the state if elected
Odoh who made this known while interacting with Journalists in Abakaliki on what he intends to achieve said his government would treat business owners as partners in progress and create the enabling environment for investors to create jobs for the people of the State.
Odoh who used the occasion to announce Dr Nkata Chuku, from Okposi in Ohaozara Local Government Area as his running mate for the election said hostile environment has been responsible for business failure in the state and pledged to reverse the trend if elected governor in 2023.
He noted that most of the big investments in the State for the past 16 years were owned by the State Government and lamented that the business were not viable on inception, and blamed the government for not creating a business friendly environment for investors.
"Globally, Government are rated by thier capability to create jobs for citizens, the reverse is the case here, incidentally, we also know why that hasn't happened.
"One of the strongest enablers for job creation is ease of doing business, in many nations, Government contributions to GDP is about 7 percent,
"The other 90 percent comes from businesses and SMEs, in Ebonyi today, our ranking for ease of doing business is 34 out of 36 states, which means, this environment is very hostile to business,
"ease of contract enforcement, if you have issues around contract and you want to go and get justice from the judiciary, we are ranked 34 again, right of will from Government, we are also ranked about 33.
"So the indices is why we are in the situation we found ourselves, one of the things we are committed to doing is to reverse the trend, we must make Ebonyi State to rank in top 5 States on the ease of doing business scale, that way, investors will be willing to come here". Odoh said.
The former Secretary to the state government lamented over taxes imposed on businesses in the State which he claimed had led to the closure of many businesses in the State and said his Government would encourage businesses with incentives with less taxation on business owners.
"If we don't encourage SMEs and big businesses to do business here with less harassment, less taxation, best business friendly laws, we cannot play host to business owners, and if we can't play host to business owners, investment here will continue to diminish". he explained.
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