Wike woos Daewoo Chairman to invest in FCT tourism

Favour Ishember, Abuja

The Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Barr. Nyesom Wike, has urged the Chairman, Daewoo Engineering and Construction, Jung Won-ju, to invest in the tourism and development of the territory, by constructing a five-star hotel in the city, to compete with other luxury hotels in global community.

Wike, who made the appeal when he played host to the Chairman, who
paid him a courtesy visit in his office on Thursday, in company of the Managing Director, Daewoo E&C Nigeria, Taewon Jung, noted that the relationship between the Republic of South Korea and Nigeria has come a long way, dated from when he was a governor of Rivers State, and that his Interest
as Minister, was to ensure the development of Abuja, and to make it an attractive tourist centre, adding that it was important to center discussions on development.

In his words:”We are talking about FCT. One of the best things you can do is tourism. And in that case, the only star hotel we can talk about here is Transcorp Hilton. So, there is no competition, nothing. Like I said, it is important that we discuss, and people know that something will come out of that discussion. For me as the FCT Minister, my interest is to develop Abuja, to make it more attractive as a tourist centre.

So, if you say that ‘okay, we want to invest in tourism, we want to build a five-star hotel, what role can you play’? We can say look, to assure you we are ready, we are not going to give you land to sell or whatever, we will give you land to build, What expanse of land do you need? And then we will ask you, how many years do you think you will be able to develop this five-star hotel? So, these are the things we like to do”.

The Minister added that he would liaise with the Korean Ambassador, to schedule a visit to the country and the construction company, to finalize details and starts the project for immediate action, while assuring the Chairman that there would be no impediments to the project on the part of the Federal Capital Territory Administration.

“All those will be taken care of by us. Everything internal; the land, the approvals, everything, you can be sure the moment we sign the memorandum of understanding, and we agree, we will hand it over to you. Any impediment is from you, no impediment will come from us.

We are also going to write to you so that we can conclude. We will make sure that before the end of the year, we should be able to visit Korea, particularly Daewoo. So, we will write the Ambassador of Korea to let him know, and then write to you as the Managing Director, so we will be able to finetune it. That way, I will be happy that there is something we can take home.”