KEYNOTE ADDRESS BY HIS EXCELLENCY, CHIEF OLUSEGUN OBASANJO, GCFR, PRESIDENT, COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF OF THE ARMED FORCES OF THE FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF NIGERIA, AT THE NATIONAL INTERACTIVE FORUM ON TRADE AND INVESTMENT, ORGANISED BY THE FEDERAL MINISTRY OF COMMERCE AT NICON HILTON HOTEL, ABUJA, 21^st – 29^th JANUARY, 2004

PROTOCOL

It gives me great pleasure to address you all on this occasion of the National Interactive Forum of Stakeholders on Trade and Investment in Nigeria. This Forum is taking place at a time when this Administration is strongly committed to achieving effective private sector-led growth by creating a market-oriented and competitive economic environment.

``The greatest challenge facing Nigeria today remains that of expanding the people's choices and allowing them to live secure lives with full freedoms and rights. Although our new democracy provides a major platform for the realisation of these objectives there is no doubt that they can only be achieved in an environment that is characterised by equitable and sustainable economic growth". Such an environment must also promote and foster people's participation in decisions that affect their lives. It is in this context that Nigeria, along with other countries, at the United Nations General Assembly in 2000, committed itself to achieving the following Millennium Development Goals by 2015:

Eradication of extreme poverty and hunger; achieving universal primary education; promoting gender equality and empowering women; reducing child mortality; improving maternal health; combating HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases; ensuring environmental sustainability; and developing a global partnership for development.

These goals impose on us an enormous obligation that requires the making of highly critical policy choices that would clearly define the path and pace of our future economic development. Hence, ``we must join hands to put an end to the negative and wasteful culture of "business as usual" just as we must work together to promote stability, growth, development and democracy’’. ``Our policy choices must be aimed at protecting local production, infant industries, and expanding opportunities for all in an enabling environment that attracts investors and encourages originality and crativity’’.

``One of the requirements for purposeful leadership is the willingness to recognise mistakes and take the necessary corrective actions. Our Development and Rolling Plans since independence have all failed to meet set objectives hence the predicaments in which we find ourselves today. These predicaments should serve to challenge us to take bold and strategic steps that will lay the foundation for sustainable growth and development’’.

``At the inception of this Administration the economy was characterised by low GDP growth rate, low productivity, decapitalisation and undercapitalization, and low levels of savings and investment. In addition, fiscal indiscipline and corruption contaminated the society and undermined opportunities for economic expansion. Service delivery had been compromised, infrastructure - public and private - had decayed to unprecedented levels, and Nigeria became a dumping ground for all sorts of dangerous and sub-standard goods’’. This is why I am particularly pleased at the overwhelming public endorsement of the prohibition placed on the importation of goods that we are already producing in Nigeria. This policy will continue in order to save foreign exchange, protect infant industries, encourage local creativity, and enhance sectoral linkages in our economy. ``Let me use this opportunity to appeal to all Nigerians and friends of Nigeria to patronize locally made goods. Charity, they say, begins at home: if you do not buy your own goods how do you convince others that they are of high quality?’’ As someone who patronizes made in Nigeria goods with pride, I can publicly attest to the fact that they are just as good, if not better than imported variants.

We are today in a struggle to reverse these inherited challenges. I am happy to say we are making very good progress. ``While the years between 1999 and 2003 were spent in laying the foundation for a new Nigeria, we have since May 2003 put in place far-reaching reforms that are beginning to redirect, reconstruct and reposition Nigeria for greatness’’.

In addition to accelerated privatisation, public sector reforms, intensified anti-corruption campaigns, and governance and institutional reforms, Government has identified six core areas: oil, gas, solid minerals, agriculture, manufacturing, and tourism as special areas for attention. We have also introduced reforms in the areas of budgeting and budget management, infrastructural development, pensions, and the management of public finances.

We have invested heavily in the security of persons and property as well as in the Customs Service to ensure that business transactions are not impaired. There is unprecedented dialogue, understanding and cooperation between the public and private sectors especially in the areas of attracting new investments and technologies. These reforms are beginning to show results and many of our initiatives have been acknowledged, within and beyond the continent of Africa.

Today, our development and reform agenda are captured in the New Economic Empowerment and Development Strategy (NEEDS), with poverty reduction, employment generation and wealth creation as the ultimate goals. Investment in the country’s greatest asset - its people, would also be made in order to lay the foundation for improvement in human capital.

Although overwhelming circumstances underscore the need for this new strategic approach, I have no doubt that the attainment of the long-term objective of social and economic transformation of Nigeria into a sustainable, competitive and prosperous economy is easily achievable if all stakeholders display the required commitment. While the burden rests

mostly with us as Nigerians, we will also need the cooperation and support of our development partners in the international community. To that end, the trade sector remains strategic in the new policy orientation largely because of its ability to create jobs, raise incomes, expand markets, facilitate competition and disseminate knowledge.

Increasing Nigeria's position and performance in the international trading system is therefore critical for advancing our human and economic development goals. Government, therefore, is committed to the rules and principles of the World Trade Organisation (WTO). We will also endeavor to extract, in full, the economic benefits accruable from our participation in the NEPAD, ECOWAS, AGOA, ACP-EU Cotonou Partnership Agreement and other trading arrangements, including South-South cooperation in the context of the G.15 and the D.8.

The international dimensions of our trade policy outlook would, however, need to be carefully balanced to ensure that domestic adjustment does not erode national economic benefits, particularly the protection of domestic industries and enterprises.

We must also continue to recognise that the economic benefits of international trade agreements do not accrue automatically as a result of

reduced trade barriers.

This realisation has largely informed the character and scope of ongoing programmes and projects in the trade sector of the Nigerian economy. To ensure that Nigeria becomes a full partner in the global economy, a new Trade Policy was adopted in 2002. The document clearly spells out the trade policy framework; institutional arrangements; and sectoral policies in agriculture, industry and services. It also covers issues relating to trade support infrastructure and the implementation strategies and action plan.

To strengthen the regulatory framework in the trade sector, I have approved the transformation of the present Consumer Protection Council (CPC) into the Nigerian Trade and Competition Commission. (NTCC), to handle issues relating to weights and measures administration, consumer protection, anti-dumping, safeguards and countervailing measures, as well as anti-trust and competition policy. The new regulatory framework will also include the establishment of the Intellectual Property Commission of Nigeria and the Bankruptcy Commission. This new regulatory environment is designed to sanitise activities in the trade sector and provide a stable, fair and competitive market environment for due process and the transparent administration of trade policy measures in Nigeria.

Distinguished Ladies and Gentlemen, let me at this stage recognize the commendable initiatives taken so far to re-energize and re-focus the Federal Ministry of Commerce to enable it take its rightful position as one of the core economic institutions in this country. From the retreat organized by the Ministry in December last year to re-orientate the staff, to this National Interactive Forum we are witnessing today, we Can see valuable measures designed to situate the commerce sub-sector as the hub of economic activities in the country, particularly in the context of public-private sector partnership.

Let me throw up some challenges. First, I implore you all to come up with appropriate proposals on how to operationalise the new trade policy framework so that we can achieve our set objectives. Second, I challenge you to address issues relating to enhancing productivity and the competitiveness of the economy, in the larger context of our development policy objectives and programmes. Third, I call on you to evolve credible approaches that would properly identify trade as the mainspring of our new development strategy, in order to facilitate the positive integration of the Nigerian economy into the international trading system. Fourth, I challenge our traders, industrialists, and others involved in productive activities to strive to achieve better quality levels, seek local and foreign markets and show the world that Nigeria means business in the new globalisation.

Finally, I challenge all Nigerians to learn from the achievements of other societies, adapt them to our own realities and strive at all times to be part of a new agenda for promoting growth and trade for a stronger economy. I look forward to receiving your recommendations on these important challenges based on discussions, both during the working sessions and in the syndicate groups.

Your discussions should, however, give priority to important policy areas like the challenges of trade liberalization and globalisation, macroeconomic environment, trade facilitation, investment promotion, and a pragmatic incentive structure capable of promoting growth in the real sectors of the economy. Nigerians expect a lot from you; you cannot afford to disappoint them.

I wish you all successful and fruitful deliberations.

God Bless.