Lagos — One of the key speakers at the forthcoming 1st South-South Economic summit is Tom Craig, Managing Director of The Monitor Company.

Other International speakers and resource persons lined up for the summit include Mr. Odein Ajumogobia, Minister of state for Petroleum, Mr. Peter Kieram, President of CPCS Transcom, Canada, Mr. Trevor Ward, Managing Director, W- Hospitality Group, Jonathan Wood , Head, Project Finance Standard Bank South Africa, Pierre Vanderbeeck, CEO Presco Nigeria and Mr. Randeh Yumkella, Director General UNIDO.

Disclosing this to Vanguard the Chairman of the organising Committee first South-South Economic Summit Professor Pat Utomi said "Parts of what Tom Graig will be talking about is how to create competitiveness clusters in countries so that in our regular way of thinking that some states are not well endowed, some might say Edo hasn't get much money as Rivers and Bayelsa, when you do the thorough competitiveness analysis and draw value chains of what Edo State is endowed with, you might actually find out that Edo is much richer than those two States.

"Every States has its factor endowment. When we talk about equal endowment, we may look at it from the traditional point of revenue from the federation's account. Endowment looks at what are the economic factors that can energise growth in an area, and how do you create the value chains, to enable them generate wealth and become competitive in the global market?.

"For instance , when you return to agriculture, and you take the palm oil value chain, and you see that making massive investment in growing palm trees across the region, and Edo is the hub of processing, or you take rubber and grow it across the region and Delta is known as the hub of rubber and you know that you can get 300 different products out of rubber, 600 different products out of palm oil, and manufacturing clusters are set up in these areas, that time you won't be asking which state is more endowed than the other.

"So you see that everybody is endowed. But we are endowed differently that is why we have the idea of comparative advantage that is, focusing on where our strength lies. This make all of us equal capable contributors".

Tom Craig will be helping the summit to do a competitiveness analysis and how to develop industrial clusters in the region. Craig, age 54, has been a director of IDEXX since December 1999 and has also been a Director/Trustee and co-founder since 1983 of Monitor Company Group, L.P., a family of consulting and investment companies committed to helping clients improve their competitiveness. He currently works out of the Office of the Chairman and focuses on national competitiveness and security, Asia, the Middle East, Africa, and executive education.

The Monitor Group is a privately-owned global management consulting firm. It was founded in 1983 by a group of six entrepreneurs with ties to the Harvard Business School: Michael Porter, Mark Fuller, Joseph Fuller, Michael Bell, Mark Thomas, and Thomas Craig. Monitor provides services in the areas of strategy consulting, capability building, and capital services.

Background to the South-South summit

The need for the South-South region of Nigeria to re-define its agenda for development in the face of mounting uncertainty raises a crucial and compelling case for re¬writing the rules of interaction, collaboration and partnership so that the region can position itself to grow the economy raise the quality of its people and tap from globalisation said members of the organising committee of the summit in a presentation last week According to them "This is why the summit theme is rooted in competitiveness defined by the factor endowments of the region and how it sharpen human capital to most efficiently create value from its comparative advantage.

To bring it nearer home, the level of exports, governance, tourism, people, culture and heritage, immigration and investments is more or less a direct measure of any community's level of strategy in this age of globalisation. Although there is now more competition for investment and trade with the surfacing of emerging markets, South-South will not shy away from admitting that the geopolitical zone, as home to the oil-rich Niger-Delta region of Nigeria has lost significant investment opportunities because of negative perceptions.

"Plagued by conflicts in some parts, leadership problems, corruption and economic challenges, poverty coupled with bad publicity, the South-South of Nigeria is a brand that has been perceived as high risk. The determination is to change the object and conditions in the region and make the region a zone of rapid development, economic growth and potential stability.

With the recent dimensions to the prevailing crises throwing up the many unresolved problems of the region, which principally bother on poverty amidst the material symbolism of wealth, both at the federal and state governments are making concerted efforts to resolve these issues and position the sector to benefit from the opportunity of globalisation.

The incumbent administration of the South-South states, that is, the governments of Akwa Ibom, Bayelsa, Cross River, Edo, Delta, and Rivers States intend to radically transform the zone into a thriving economically viable region."

In the South-South today, there is an increasing realisation that an appropriate strategy for the region's rapid economic development is through regional, national and international integration. On the other hand, at the heart of the challenging task of placing Nigeria among the top 20 global economies by 2020 is the need for closer collaboration between all the states particularly in the South-South which is undeniably Nigeria's strongest economic zone because of the abundant natural resources in the area and its human capital base which tends, today, to be domiciled outside the region.

The governments of the South-South states have since begun a gradual process of shoring up the region's investment profile by creating the enabling environment for efficient governance and service-oriented private sector with complementing incentives. Consequently, the First South-South Summit will hold on Wednesday 22nd April 2009 to Friday 24th April 2009 at the Tinapa Business Resort, Calabar, Cross River State. The theme for the Summit is Positioning the South-South for Global competitiveness.

To be competitive in the global knowledge economy, emphasis must be placed on human capital development. As part of this positioning, annual savings are now being consciously directed to the social sectors of education and health. Akwa Ibom State for instance, is offering free public education at primary and secondary school level for all its indigenes. There are already significant investments in the power sector with most states going for their own independent power plants to ensure sustained power generation towards enhancing the economic activities in their states. Construction is already at advanced stages for the completion of international airports in Delta and Akwa Ibom States to open up the state and enhance free flow of goods and services in and outside the region. Cooperation and rational ration of effectiveness has emerged as the imperative of the moment.

The South-South's current economic position in the global context and its relative future prospects, throws up three key channels through which the region is already connected to the global economy. These channels are the flow of goods and services (trade), capital flows in and out of the region (capital), and the flows of people (labour).

Other incentives for direct investment in the region include; favourable climate all-year round; abundance of rich, fertile soil which if maximally exploited can tremendously fast-track the economic development of the states; numerous eco-tourism destinations and relaxation points; existence of industrial estates and parks with basic infrastructure; positive, proactive and progressive government that is committed to ensuring the presence of electricity, good quality access roads, telecommunication and other facilities to support the growth and sustainability of any investments; and a rich manpower base with a unique blend of talent and skill to help translate various corporate visions into reality

Our vision of this summit is hinged on the knowledge that building a competitive business environment should remain a priority if we are to achieve prosperity and excellent quality of life for our people. Each of the governors of the south-south states has demonstrated their commitment to this vision by exerting concerted efforts towards providing necessary supportive infrastructure to enhance productivity in their states.

Among our expectations from the summit is the design of peer review mechanisms and objective measures that will pressure the individual governments and the group to be more accountable and to pursue SMART Goals. Central to this vision is the issue of ownership of the development and transformation process itself. We wear the shoe; it goes without saying that we know where it pinches the most. Our success and progress depend on our real ownership of the South-South's

development agenda. In that regard, the South-South leaders in coming together to convene this summit desire to articulate, implement and monitor our strategic frameworks, programs and projects within the context on a world-wide vision of development.

Summit goals:

The goals of the Summit include: to articulate a regional development strategy for the region; integrate the economies of the 6 states of the zone, and; transform the region away from the current challenges to a zone of prosperity.

This first South-South Summit is targeted at bracing the region for integrated development of which the notions of partnership and collaboration particularly with the organised private sector are at the core. The Summit offers opportunities for corporate sponsorships and exhibitions of goods and services. All the States of the South-South will be exhibiting their opportunities that are open for investment at the Summit.

Bracing for integrated development

The South-South has gone through phases of development characterised by numerous events and experiences ranging from despondency and hope to active search for strategies that will effect rapid economic growth and wealth redistribution in the region. It has often been said that the world is a global village linked by a continuous flow of ideas through the best communication systems that the earth has ever had.

Therefore the economy of any one region is part of a global economic system and is only independent within some reasonable bounds. Nigeria's South-South, with all its vast resources cannot afford to be left out of this global economic system. We cannot afford to neglect the need for a clear articulation of policies and strategies. Given the fact that the economic situation is dynamic and subject to ripples from the world or global economic system, it is critical that our policies and strategies be adaptable into a dynamic framework that clearly articulates issues of sustainability both of the strategies and the transformation process.

The key challenge is to ensure that our economic growth is not driven mainly by cyclical factors but by structural determinants as well. Poor economic policies, corruption, and the high costs of doing business which in the past combined to keep our potential as a region basically untapped can no longer constitute major hindrances to our socio-economic advancement. As the South-South overcomes the burden of several decades of poor governance, infrastructure bottlenecks, and poor socio-economic conditions and becomes positioned to seize the opportunities and meet the challenges of globalisation, the expectation in convening this First Economic Summit is to send home the resounding message that no investor can ever be wrong with Nigeria's South-South.