Lagos state governor; Babatunde Fashola says his administration is committed to opening up the transportation sector in order to facilitate trade in the state, while urging France to partner with the state government in the transport sector.
The governor was speaking while receiving the France Minister of Foreign Trade, Mrs Nicole Bricg, at the government house, Ikeja.
The French Minister who spoke through her interpreter noted that her country is interested in partnering with Lagos especially in the area of investing in the transportation sector.
The Governor urged the delegation to take time and visit the state's Lekki Free Trade Zone which, according to him, is made up of 16,000 square hectares of land for the development of industrial complex for logistics, manufacturing, oil and gas and which has been broken up into segments with work commencing on building the first 3,000 hectares.
"It has all of the global facilities that trading in free trade zone will have; customs clearing is already in place at the moment. The regulatory regime is there, so we are just about the process of development. We already have some industrialists and entrepreneurs who have taken land and who have already started development of their sites", the Governor said.
Responding to remarks earlier made by the French Foreign Trade Minister on the importance of transportation, Governor Fashola declared, "The Lagos transport project is not going to be intra city and inter-country transportation alone but an international transportation that would bring people from diverse and far-flung places together and facilitate trade".
Describing the delegation's visit as the reckoning of a civilization with the reality of globalization, Governor Fashola said the central role of transportation in commerce was one of the reasons why the State is committed to the Blue Line project on the western corridor of Lagos along with the road expansion there to link Nigeria with her sister countries along the west coast of Africa.
The Governor expressed joy at the progress so far made, with the support of the French Development Agency, on the expansion of the Mile 12 Ikorodu highway noting that the project is making steady progress. He added, "From the indicators that I have, sometime toward the end of next year, it should be done if we do not suffer any project delay and the people are very warmly receptive of the project and all is really well at the moment".
He also informed the business delegation that the ground work for the Lekki Airport was on-going with a lot of work already done in terms of concept design, fencing of the area as well as sorting out of issues of compensation with the landowners.
