GRi Business, Economics & Finance 10 –
04 - 2003
Civil Servants to
enjoy new salaries
African Act
launched in Takoradi
Friedrich Naumann Foundation calls on the President
Government will
change the country's poverty
Civil
Servants to enjoy new salaries
Accra (Greater Accra) 10 April 2003-
Alhaji Yakubu Ziblim,
President of the Civil Servants Association, said on Wednesday that
negotiations on a new salary scale for the Civil Service with retrospective
effect from February, this year had been concluded with government.
Speaking at the launching of
"The Civil Servant" a journal of the Association in
Jake Obetsebi-Lamptey, Minister
for Tourism and the Modernisation of the Capital, who launched the journal
called on workers to let their voices be heard to move the country forward. He
asked them to contribute articles that would generate reflection and thought to
the journal, which is the mouthpiece of the Association.
Obetsebi Lamptey
acknowledged the importance of civil servants, saying, "without
them a country would find it difficult to manage its affairs". "You
cannot have a good private sector as an engine of growth without a good public
sector, and be able to sustain the government's golden age business
policy," he said.
Obetsebi-Lamptey noted that good
journals survived on reputation built over the years for expressing clear
thoughts, adding that, the Association should take advantage of the repeal of
the criminal libel law to lead a new type of journalism.
GRi…/
Send your comments to viewpoint@ghanareview.com
African Act
launched in Takoradi
Takoradi (Western Region) 10
April 2003- Boniface Abu-Bakar Saddique,
Deputy Minister of Tourism and Modernisation of the Capital City, on Wednesday
said securing improved access to international markets was one of the government's
key strategies.
He said the government was using
this strategy to diversify the country's export market and to promote the
growth and development of exports. Saddique was
speaking at the Western Regional launching of The African Growth and
Opportunity Act (AGOA).
''The government has also
identified trade and investment as the twin engines for achieving rapid
economic growth and reducing poverty. AGOA provides an expanded trade and
investment opportunities for the export sector.''
He said AGOA allowed duty free
and quota free access to
Saddique said the focus of AGOA was on
the private sector and the government was determined to provide a stable
political environment, market friendly economic policies and improved
regulatory environment to support the country's private sector to enable it
build linkages with their counterparts in the
Saddique said
Saddique said the government had
recommended five per cent reduction in duty on inputs for textile production
such as dyestuff, chemicals and greybaft in order to
make local production of textile competitive.
He said the Ministry of Trade
and Industries had set up a training centre for garment manufacturers at the
Garment training Centre in
Saddique said another training centre
had been established at the Volta Garment Training Centre to provide skills for
seamstresses and tailors to enable them export to the U.S. Madam Sophia
Horner-Sam, Deputy Western Regional Minister, said AGOA offered a golden
opportunity for the government to create jobs for the country's teeming youth
and to also create wealth.
She said one of the challenges
facing Ghanaian entrepreneurs who wanted to export to the
GRi…/
Send your comments to viewpoint@ghanareview.com
Friedrich Naumann Foundation calls on the President
He said
Erkens made the call when he led a
four-man delegation from the Foundation to call on President John Agyekum
Kufuor at the Castle, Osu. He
is on a nine-day duty tour of
Erkens said efforts should be made by
the MPSD to attract Ghanaian investors, who had their roots in
The Regional Director, who is
based in
He commended President Kufuor
for the unique role he played in restoring peace to
He said the liberal outlook of
the Foundation and its contribution to democratic rule in
President Kufuor called on the
Foundation to establish strong relationship with the MPSD to improve on their
activities and attract foreign investors. Ernst Specht,
Regional Co-ordinator of the West Africa Programme, said the Foundation in
collaboration with the Association of Ghana Industries (AGI), and the National
Board for Small Scale Industries (NBSSI) had embarked on a project to sustain
economic development.
He said the project being funded
through EU assistance to non-governmental organisations in developing countries
was to create conducive atmosphere for small and medium scale enterprises to
contribute to economic development.
GRi…/
Send your comments to viewpoint@ghanareview.com
Government
will change the country's poverty
Accra (Greater Accra) 10 April 2003-
President John Agyekum Kufuor on Wednesday said the government was resolved to
significantly change the profile the majority of Ghanaians, who had for far too
long been living in abject poverty.
This was contained in an address
the Minister of Finance, Yaw Osafo Maafo read for the President at the opening
session of a two-day Accountants Conference in
President Kufuor said
He said the HIPC (Highly
Indebted Poor Countries) initiative, the President's Special Initiatives and
other measures so far taken by the government constituted "step by step
building blocks" intended to create the right environment and
infrastructural facilities that would enable Ghanaians to create wealth and
thereby reduce poverty.
However, the ultimate success of
measures would be limited unless professional groups like accountants
proactively join hands with government in the crusade. "It is a
fundamental guiding principle of my government that unless positive steps are
taken to eliminate or at least significantly reduce the endemic corruption in
our society, all our efforts will come to naught."
President Kufuor, therefore,
called for proactive involvement of accountants in fighting and preventing
fraud, especially white-collar crime. He appealed to the Institute to take
effective measures to strengthen its disciplinary procedures in dealing quickly
with errant members to wipe away "the few black sheep" among its
fold.
The President also touched on
fake accountants, who were operating without licence and other practicing
accountants, who were in the habit of preparing different sets of accounts for
the same corporate entities to suit their different needs, thereby assisting
companies to evade tax and mislead banks to approve credit based on wrong
accounting data.
John Klinogo,
President of the
GRi…/
Send your comments to viewpoint@ghanareview.com