Chinese Firm To Build $1.5bn Shoe Factory In Aba

BY ANAYO OKOLI.
UMUAHIA — IN an effort to improve the quality of
shoes produced in Aba, Abia State to international
standard, Governor Okezie Ikpeazu has secured
the interest of a Chinese company which has
agreed to set up $1.5 billion shoe industry in Aba. Obasanjo (left) with Ikpeazu admiring the Made- in-Aba shoes delivery The company, Huajian Shoe Industry based in
Dongguan, Guangzhou, China and Governor
Ikpeazu, according to Enyinnaya Appolos, the
Governor’s spokesman, met and secured the
agreement during a meeting with Mr. Zhang
Huarong, the Group Chairman of the company, during the recent 1st Nigeria-China Governors
Investment Forum. The Abia-Huajian Shoe Industrial City is expected
to produce 5,000 shoes per day and engage about
10,000 people directly and indirectly. The tenets of the agreement provide that Abia
State Government would provide the land and
other conducive investment incentives for the
project while the Huajian Group would fund the
entire project. Mr. Huarong, was quoted as saying that Governor
Ikpeazu was the first Nigerian leader to visit him
and disclosed that the Huajian Group has already
employed 6,000 staff and currently developing a
250-acre Industrial City in Ethiopia and expressed
his readiness to invest in Nigeria. The Huajian Group, according to him, currently
employs about 20,000 staff in China and operates a
10,000-shoe per day factory in Dongguan, China
said to value at $2 billion.
Mr. Huarong was also said to have assured that he
would visit the r in Abia before the end of April 2017 for further discussion on the project.