Cross River, Canada unite on health education

TO ensure good governance, the Cross River State Government has planned to strengthen its partnership with Canadian donor agencies.

Governor Liyel Imoke who disclosed this on Monday while receiving the Canadian High Commissioner to Nigeria, Mr. Chris Cooter, during a courtesy visit in Calabar, said the partnership, would be most needed in the areas of health, education, forestry and tourism.

He said the state had a strong support from Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) especially in Primary Health Care and added that it needed to engage additional staff to support the health initiatives.

Imoke said it was important that the state keyed into Canadian Health programme to enable Cross River people acquire skills.

The governor disclosed that the state was committed to the establishment of a Polytechnic to compliment the two existing universities in the state, though with emphasis on core professional courses to enable graduates to be employable or become employer of labour.

He reaffirmed the state’s desire to meet the MDGs goals of 2015 and solicited the co-operation and support of Canada in that direction.

He commended the country for its feat in the telecommunications sector, which has made the blackberry telephone a household name all over the world.

On its forestry programme, Imoke disclosed that one of the challenges of the sector was the control of forest degradation due to illegal logging as well as creating an alternative means of livelihood for the forest communities.

Earlier, Cooter said he was in the state to explore areas of co-operation and support for the government.