Edo State Governor Godwin Obaseki is seeking the cooperation of Japanese government to train youths from the state.
Obaseki spoke shortly after holding discussions with the First Secretary, Economic Development Cooperation at the Embassy of Japan, Gaku Sato, in Abuja yesterday.
He said the state would work with the Japanese government to improve the technical colleges and other training facilities in the state.
“This is part of why we approached the Japanese Embassy under the various bilateral agreements we have in revamping the technical schools. As you know, Japan has also a lot of experience in growing rice, and we have a large rice belt in the state and we have looked at co-operating with them.
“This weekend in Benin, we have over 70 investors in agriculture who will be meeting with me. We are talking very direct with them and asking them of off taking our agricultural products, in addition to getting the right seeds, rice farming practices so that we could engage our youths properly.
“Edo is a transport hub and as I discussed with the Ambassador, there are lots of Japanese companies investing in transportation and automobile and we would be exploring that opportunity in areas of manufacturing.”
Sato said he had discussed about investing in the state with some investors and businesses in Japan.
“We are already talking to Japanese business people about Edo state. For most of them, Nigeria is Lagos but we are working hard to ensure they focus attention on other states as we are already discussing on areas of investment with the governor.”