Lagos — Driven by the need to speed up development in the state, the Delta State Government recently launched a business development initiative which it called the Warri Industrial Park. The master plan of the park was unveiled recently in Warri, Delta State.

The idea behind the plan is to provide an exclusively developed industrial community, fitted with all related infrastructure and facilities like water, road network, electricity, security, sewage etc., that are both complementary and promotional of industrial efforts.

The park is thus to serve as a platform, a ready-made ground, upon which industries of all sorts can be established by investors. As it was described by state officials, it is like building and furnishing a house and asking a potential tenant to just pay and move in. It is noteworthy that such parks are also being planned for three other locations like Kwale, Asaba and Koko within the state. When fully realised, the area will be an industrial cluster, hosting various industrial concerns.

The overall purpose is to re-launch the Warri industrial potentials given its huge oil and gas wealth. According to the Delta State governor, Dr Emmanuel Uduaghan, "the fallout of the industrial park will affect positively the bigger Warri, where the spill over effect is better imagined in terms of development."

While we commend the initiative and courage that has driven the project to this point, we are concerned that a project of such magnitude does not yet have a cost estimate attached to it. This is even more curious considering that it is a somewhat long-term project.

It is remarkable that the project will be a private-public partnership scheme, yet it is important to know who is paying what in terms of the equity holding of the project.

It is believed that given the huge benefit of the project, government and its private partners must demonstrate sufficient and unwavering commitment to the eventual realisation of the project. This project must be spared the obnoxious tag of white elephant project, just as it must not suffer the label of being an abandoned project, especially as many as 34 investors have already signified interest to key into it.

That is all the more reason the funding scheme and the life span of the project should be clearly defined.

While the Delta State government has undertaken to provide the required infrastructure at the industrial park we expect it to go beyond promises and truly set to do so. Certainly one core requirement that can buoy the interest and commitment of the investors is the Peace factor. Without peace, not many investments can flourish. But Gov. Uduaghan argues that, "what is key to investment is good governance", stressing that "insecurity will not stop investment, but lack of good governance will." Needless to emphasise that peace is germane to good governance; therefore we urge the Delta State government to sustain the current peace initiatives both in the state and in the Niger Delta region, especially as peace and security is one of the three cornerstones of the Uduaghan government.

All said, we should remind the Delta State government that master plan itself is not the project. It is only a work guide. In fact, it is the easiest part of the entire project. The harder bit is in putting action to the master plan. With a growing population of unemployed youths, the Warri Business and Industrial Park, we believe, is one project that must not be allowed to fail.