Winneba (Central Region) 04 April 2003-
Vice President Aliu Mahama
said on Wednesday that the government would support individuals and groups that
would invest in salt mining to develop the mineral as the nation's "white
gold" for the creation jobs, wealth and prosperity.
He was speaking at Winneba, in the Awutu-Effutu-Senya
District, where he inspected a 283 hectare salt mining project, being developed
at a cost of 2.3 million dollars, by two Ghanaian entrepreneurs, Ernest Ofori Sarpong and Osei Kwame, alias 'Despite'.
Vice President Mahama, who is on a three-day tour of the Central Region,
to inspect development projects and to interact with the people to ascertain
their views on government policies, earlier visited a small-scale salt project
at Gomoa Nyanyano, where it
was announced that the government had allocated 17.2 billion cedis to support small-scale salt miners this year.
Vice President Mahama, who said he was 'pleasantly shocked' by the huge
investments and the size of the Winneba Salt Project,
pledged the government's assistance to make the project a success.
Sarpong, who took the Vice President
and his entourage round, said the project was scheduled for completion in two
months for production to start in October. About 30,000 tonnes to 40,000 tonnes
of salt would be mined annually for export to countries in the Sub-Region where
there is a huge demand for salt, he said.
More than 500 people would be
employed at the mine, which has 24 large clay-based saltpans. The project,
which started last year January, would be expanded, under a second phase, to
include the cultivation of seafoods, such as prawns
and shrimps.
Sarpong told the Vice President that
electricity and other basic infrastructure were required and asked for the
government's support in providing them. Vice president Mahama
had earlier called on Nenyi Ghartey
VII, Omanhene of the Effutu
Traditional Area, where he asked for the co-operation of his people on the salt
project to ensure its viability.
He said the government
considered chiefs as partners in development, who must be consulted on the
formulation of policies and their implementation to facilitate socio-economic
development.
He told Nenyi
Ghartey that he would discuss his request for action
to be expedited on the divestiture of the Pomadze
Poultry Farms with the Divestiture Implementation Committee.
The Omanhene
said the Farm, which collapsed several years ago, should be revived to create
jobs in the area, adding that employment would ensure peace and progress. Vice
president Mahama also visited Gomoa
Potsin, Adzentam, Panfokrom and Awombrew where he
addressed the chiefs and people at separate durbars held in his honour.
He encouraged parents to send
their children to school, saying the difficulties they endured in rural
settings should not deter the children from pursuing higher education. The Vice
President said: "Most people in leadership positions today, including most
of our heads of state, grew up in rural areas. Your children can also make it
to the top so you should support them to develop their talents."
He stressed the importance of
education as the key to self-development and the elimination of poverty. The
Vice President told them that their requests for the provision of electricity,
dams to support agricultural activities, the rehabilitation of roads, schools
and other infrastructure would be addressed in due course as the government was
determined to fulfil its promises to Ghanaians.
The Minister of Local Government
and Rural Development, Kwadwo Adjei-Darko, Minister
of Lands and Forestry, Professor Dominic Fobih, Dr Kwaku Afriyie, Minister of
Health, Central Regional Minister Isaac Edumadze,
Deputy Ministers Hajia Alima
Mahama of Local Government and Alex Sofo of Roads and Highways, accompanied the Vice-President.
The District Chief Executive of Gomoa, Joyce Aidoo and other government Officials were also on the
entourage.
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The storage vessel, MT Asterias I was alleged to have gone missing with 73,701
barrels of crude oil worth two million dollars which had accumulated since
trial production began in June last year at the Saltpond
Oil Fields.
Kan-Dapaah
told the press that a Reuters news report on Thursday
said the Nigerian company, Ocean & Oil Limited, which seized the vessel,
said the cargo was impounded as a way of security for non-payment of freight
charges and interest due them.
He said the Ghana National
Petroleum Company (GNPC) also on Tuesday received a copy of a letter that said
the charter company owns the vessel owners an amount of 1,915,428.61 dollars.
He said Mr Paul Okoloko, Managing Director of Ocean
& Oil Limited, in a statement faxed to Reuters, said they took that action
after the chatterers, Lushann International Energy
Incorporated of
The report said, "The
chatterers had failed to make any payment for the hire of the vessel in the
last seven months." The Minister said the crude oil that had been taken
away belonged to a joint venture including GNPC, which had 40 per cent interest,
Lushann International and the Saltpond
Offshore Producing Company Limited (SOPCL).
He said had the oil been
properly disposed of through the joint venture, the SOPCL would have received
funds to meet its operational and production expenses including the servicing of
loans obtained by the company for the payment of royalties of three per cent of
the gross value of 60,000 dollars to the government.
Kan-Dapaah
said the government was mindful of the potential criminal nature of the
incident. He said when the matter was brought into the public domain by the
initial press statement, a conscious decision was
taken to recognise the need to avoid interfering with the due process of
investigations.
He explained that the oil field
was first discovered in 1970 by Signal/Amoco Group and developed and put into
production in 1978. He said the field was shut in 1985 when production declined
and the platform (rig) named "Mr Louie" that was used in the
production was left at the location to be decommissioned.
He said when the new government
came to office, it noticed that the charter company
was not giving
He said new agreements were
later made with the charter company, which agreed to subject their agreement to
the appropriate prerequisites. A draft Petroleum Agreement incorporating terms
that favoured
The Minister cautioned the media
as well as the public to be circumspect when commenting on matters concerning
the missing vessel for investigations to take their full course. Meanwhile the
government had tasked the Attorney -General to commence action to place a
temporary lien on Lushann's assets in
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Accra (Greater Accra) 04 April
2003- Ghana has made tremendous strides in meeting targets under the African
Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) in less than a year after joining the
programme, becoming the eighth largest exporter under the Act to the United
States market.
Consequently, 50 million dollars
worth of goods were exported last year and a new target of 62.5 million dollars
had been set for this year, Dr Kofi Apraku, the outgoing Minister of Trade and Industry said in
Ghana EXPO 2003 is a specialized
trade and investment exhibition and conference to be held in
The event to be held from 16th
to
Dr Apraku
said the AGOA Secretariat would soon embark on a comprehensive capacity
building and training exercise for Ghanaian exporters to enable them to meet
the high and sophisticated tastes of the overseas markets.
He described the event "as
most appropriate as it comes at a time when the government is pursuing an
agenda of developing
Dr Apraku
pledged government's commitment to intensify its efforts and provide more
capital to support domestic industry. "In this regard, we shall make the
Export Development and Investment Fund (EDIF) even more supportive of the
private sector."
He explained that EDIF as at 20
March this year granted loans totalling 113.9 billion cedis
to exporters for products covering salt, wood, handicrafts, plastics and
pharmaceuticals and for agro-processing.
He said art and craft villages
were also being created in each region to improve the quality and diversity of
He said the government would
strive to reduce inflation and to make sure that doing business in
Isaac Osei,
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Accra (Greater Accra) 04 April
2003- The Third World Network (TWN)- Africa on Thursday called for the
suspension of the proposed law on government Procurement Bill citing several discrepancies
which it said were inimical and detrimental to the growth and development of
local firms.
It said the Bill, to be
discussed in the next session of Parliament, did not pave the way for broad
national consensus building, hence compromising the national interest. Stating
the position of TWN, an international network of groups and individuals that
seek to articulate the needs and rights of third world countries, at a forum in
"It is better to have a
broad consensus than just to have a Bill turn into law with all the suspicions
that are in the public domain," he said. Putting forward the TWN's content analysis and evaluation of the Draft Bill, Ms
Nana Eshun, a Consultant on International Trade Law,
argued that the Bill as it stood now, showed a clear position of Western
countries influencing market accessibility as a requirement for achieving transparency
in procurement process.
She said the intention of the
Western world particularly the
Ms Eshun
said the market access provision must be removed entirely from the Bill because
its implication was entirely different from the issue of transparency and
minimizing corruption in the procurement process.
Besides, she said, international
competitive tendering ought to be separated from the national tendering because
equal treatment of all countries would work only in an ideal situation where
all countries were at the same level of development.
"The fact that countries
are at different levels of development necessitates the application of
differential treatment tailored towards the particular circumstance and need of
a country and aimed at achieving economic and social development of a
country."
Ms Eshun
said there was the need to specify the grounds upon which foreign firms would
be invited to participate in the procurement process, adding, "for
instance where it is unlikely that local firms will have the requisite
expertise."
She said contracts should be
packaged in a manner that would allow local firms to qualify to bid for them,
and that procuring entities should avoid bunching up services or projects in
large quantities that discriminated against local firms.
"The requirements for
tender securities and the international standards should be reviewed to address
local conditions and practices, which discriminate against small and
medium-sized local firms".
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