Ndubuisi Francis in Abuja
The Minister of Industry, Trade and Investment, Dr. Okechukwu Enelamah, has been invited to join the Stewardship Board of the World Economic Forum (WEF) System Initiative on Shaping the Future of International Trade and Investment.
He was invited last month to join the board, each comprising 20 to 40 global leaders drawn from the public and private sectors
A statement issued by the minister’s Strategic Communications Adviser, Miss Constance Ikokwu, said the board members are expected to provide leadership on selected issues.
According to the WEF, “the Fourth Industrial Revolution is transforming the way we live, which necessitates a wider set of actors, experts and resourcefulness to make progress.”
It added that emphasis was being placed on a set of major issues called System Initiative, in which multi-stakeholder collaboration is required
By design, each System Initiative focuses on specific issues, while engaging a cross section of WEF’s interested business and no-business constituents
The role of the Stewardship Board is to guide the work of the System Initiative, take stock of the state of public-private cooperation on the issue at hand and explore collectively how cooperation can be strengthened.
WEF added that the Stewardship Board “are the only platforms where such high-level exchange about opportunities to strengthen collaboration between public and private partners on these critical issues occurs on an ongoing basis.”
Accepting the invitation to serve on the WEF Board, Enelamah expressed the opinion that the initiative was timely in a global economy undergoing rapid and dynamic transformation, accentuated by the Fourth Industrial Revolution as earlier noted.
In his word, “The changes underway pose challenges accompanied, nonetheless, with an abundance of opportunities.
“I share your views that progress in this area will benefit, hugely from a range of stakeholder consultations that cut across the public and private sectors. I am pleased to join in the efforts that you are steering,” he added.
The Stewardship Board meets twice a year.
