GRi BEF News Ghana
18 - 08 - 2000
Empretec
Business Forum holds second national conference
We are ready to help reduce cement price - Minister
Empretec Business Forum holds second national conference
Accra
(Greater Accra) 18 August 2000
Mr. Dan
Abodakpi, Minister of Trade and Industry, on Thursday opened the second
national conference of the Empretec Business Forum (EBF) with a call on
industries to reorganise production and incorporate local micro, small and
medium size companies into their production processes.
This, he
said, would help them save on transport and other costs, and enhance their
ability to specialise in diverse components of production and remain in
business in a very competitive business world.
The
conference was on the theme: "Empowering the Private Sector for a
Sustainable Economic Growth."
Mr.
Abodakpi said in furtherance of the incorporation of local micro, small and
medium-scale industries, the ministry has established a channel of
communication with small and medium enterprises through the Interactive Policy
Formulation Programme (IPFP), formerly called Strategy for the Management of
Industrial Development (SMID).
The minister
said private sector companies and public organisations under the IPFP have
formed clusters through networking to identity and resolve policy, technical,
managerial and other constraints holding back growth in the four potentially
competitive sub-sectors of food processing, wood processing, textile and
garments and packaging.
Mr.
Abodakpi stressed that the diversification and increased processing of
resource-based products cannot ensure and sustain growth even though they
reduce risks.
"Our
challenge is to expand production in areas where demand responses in world
markets are higher, value added is bigger, and productivity growth can be
faster."
Mr.
Abodakpi urged companies to begin to invest in fast growing businesses driven
by dynamic technology and new information systems through smart partnerships
forged with both local and foreign companies, which have the resources or
knowledge base.
He
announced that the ministry has developed a national industrial policy that
seeks to integrate large, medium and small enterprises, and public and private
sector activities into a coherent relationship that responds to strategies that
can be implemented to achieve the growth targets set for the industrial sector.
Mr.
Abodakpi said there are plans to harmonise other programmes run by the National
Board for Small Scale Industries (NBSSI), GRATIS, Agricultural Development
Bank, National Investment Bank, among others, in order to monitor their overall
impact and direction to enhance the projection of skills.
He said the
ministry is doing its part in pursuing recommendations that entrepreneurial
training should be incorporated in pre-tertiary curricula and training
programmes established in tertiary institutions.
He
commended the NBSSI and EMPRETEC for matching technical assistance with credit.
GRi/
We are ready to help reduce cement price - Minister
Accra
(Greater Accra) 18 August 2000
Mr.
Dan Abodakpi, Minister of Trade and Industry, on Thursday said the government
through the Ministry of Trade and Industry is ready to help in efforts to
reduce the price of cement.
He
said that this would be done by allowing for wider and increased participation
in the cement industry to ensure effective competition and to ensure that no
one company fixes cement price at its pleasure.
Mr.
Abodakpi was answering a question at the second National Conference of Empretec
Business Forum in Accra on Thursday.
The
conference was under the theme: "Empowering the Private Sector for an Able
Economic Growth".
Mr.
Abodakpi called for an end to the practice of over reliance on cement in the
construction of houses.
He
said that state involvement in estate development is gradually being phased out
with the advent of private housing development agencies, adding that the amount
spent on importing clinker and the refusal of countries to process limestone
from Ghana is "mind-boggling".
Mr.
Abodakpi noted that the shift to the use of brick and tile calls for a massive
national awareness and education campaign to succeed.
GRi/