National Workshop on Private Sector underway at Elmina
Sam Jonah calls for re-orientation of Civil
Service
Elmina (Central Region) 21 January 2002 - Dr Sam Jonah, Chief Executive of the Ashanti Goldfields Company (AGC) has observed that there could be no viable private sector development without a strong, efficient and investor-friendly public sector.
The Civil Service need re-orientation, he said and urged the government to initiate an all-embracing education for the Civil Service to liase with the private sector. "Unless we address this problem, policy formulation and implementation will continue to be out of sync and the cost of doing business in Ghana, will continue to be very high," he added.
Dr Jonah was speaking on the topic "Strategies for Promoting Private Sector Investment in Ghana", at a three-day National Workshop to define the policy direction and strategies for achieving the "Golden Age of Business", at Elmina, in the Central Region at the weekend.
"20 years of mismanagement of the economy has sapped the confidence of the Civil Servants, they are badly paid, feel unappreciated, their morale is desperately low and investors complain that the attitude of Civil Servants is one of hostility to them", he said.
"Regulations; licensing and inspection are part of the weapons wielded by some civil servants to frustrate the private sector. Ports and immigration procedures are cumbersome and it takes about 20 days to take delivery of goods at the Ghana ports as against 15 days in Nigeria and 30 minutes in ports in UK and France," he added.
Dr Jonah said the government must lay foundation of a strong and productive private sector that would truly serve as the engine of the country's economic growth since it was committed to ensuring that its policies and principles were carried through.
The government's determination to make Ghana the gateway to the sub-region and the investment destination of choice, could only be successful when there was an environment that was safe, friendly and economically attractive, he stated. "Our economic destiny lies in an integrated sub-region and we must therefore work hard to turn protocols into reality," he added.
Dr Jonah called for revision of the country's Corporate Laws because they were "out of step with dynamic progress in the international corporate environment and did not facilitate and sustain investments".
He said Ghana had comparative advantage by investing in mineral resources, agriculture and agro-processing, tourism, Information Technology (IT) and education and urged the government to direct its efforts in sourcing investments.
Dr Jonah said there was greater return in exploiting South-South linkages than the previous North-South co-operation that had characterised the country's efforts to promote.
"Many of these emerging partners have closer cultural affinity to us and they have a greater appetite for risk than their colleagues in the North, in addition they are accumulating capital that is looking for a home," he added.
Dr Jonah said in the government's investment promotion efforts, the country's Ambassadors should know that economic diplomacy was now the order of the day and should be at the forefront to promote Ghana and attract investors.
The government also needed a proactive public relations unit to effectively market its policies to the public, he noted.
GRi../
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Dunkwa On-Offin (Central Region) 21 January 2002 - The government is to study the divestiture of the State Gold Mining Corporation at Dunkwa and the Ashanti Gold Corporation (AGC) Ayanfuri Limited to see if they could be assisted to come back into operation to offer job avenues for the youth in the area, Mr. J. H. Mensah, Senior Minister said on Friday.
He urged the chiefs and people of the Upper Denkyira traditional area especially the youth, to exercise restraint and cooperate with the management of the two companies to ensure peace in the area.
Mr. Mensah was responding to some public concerns raised at a well-attended Peoples Assembly organised by the Upper Denkyira District Assembly at Dunkwa-On-Offin as part of activities marking the ninth anniversary of the Fourth Republic and the government's one year in office.
Issues raised, focused mostly on the two mining companies in the area which had not resumed operations despite their divestiture, the provision of electricity, construction and rehabilitation of roads and schools.
Mr. Mensah gave the assurance that the government would do everything to better their lot, stressing that with good economic policies and programmes Ghana's economy had started picking up.
He advised Ghanaians not to play politics with projects that involved the lives of the people and cautioned persons who had started undermining the Cassava Project to stop their nefarious activities.
The Senior Minister appealed to the youth to get involved in agriculture to increase food production for export, adding that more feeder roads would be constructed to facilitate food and cocoa evacuation form growing areas.
GRi../
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Elmina (Central Region) 21 January 2002 - President John Agyekum Kufuor on Saturday said the Ministry for Private Sector Development (MPSD) was established to encourage hard-working, honest and successful individuals to get good dividends for their hard-work, investments and to get rich.
In the past, it had become dangerous to be rich or to be known and seen as such, therefore successful businessmen decided it was safer to appear to be modest and kept their hard earned monies overseas rather than in local banks, he observed.
"This must change and the Ministry must see it as integral to its duties to campaign to reverse this trend," he added. President Kufuor was addressing the opening of a three-day National Workshop on fashioning the "Policy Directions and Strategies for Private Sector Development in Ghana" to create the Golden Age of Business, at Elmina in the Central region.
President Kufuor said it was intended to be an innovative service ministry to co ordinate and harmonize the efforts of all relevant ministries and agencies to make them effective in their support for the development of the private sector.
The ministry will also act as the champion and advocate of the private sector both local and foreign in its push to assume the role as engine of growth of the economy.
It would critically examine, identify and work to remove the various bureaucratic and other impediments or practices, which affect the smooth operation of the private sector. "Any impediments within our economic, legal and financial framework should be removed, re-shaped or transformed to the advantage of business," he added.
President Kufuor said the government was renewing its commitment to give hope and assistance to investors both local and foreign who were prepared to risk their capital to create wealth for themselves and society.
The Ministry's focus must be to identify and encourage the evolution of this class of entrepreneurs to generate wealth and thereby contribute to make the nation and the people comfortable with higher standards of living.
President Kufuor said the Ministry must be concerned with business in all its forms and its operations must be inter-sectoral to cut across various ministries and departments such as the Ministries of Finance, Trade and Industry, Agriculture, Mines, Energy and Lands and Forestry.
The cardinal feature in the globalised economy was competition and the successful players were those businesses and entrepreneurs who were geared up to respond adequately to the twists and turns of the market, he noted and added: "The ministry must therefore help to discover and nurture those businessmen and enterprises capable of taking the country into the mainstream of the global village."
Mr Kwamena Bartels, Minister of Private Sector Development said an Advisory Board made up of representatives of the private sector and experts would be established to have a regular forum where the private sector and the public sector agencies could exchange views on important policy issues.
In addition, the Ministry would establish a unit that would specialise in assisting businesses to enter into Public, Private Partnership (PPP) arrangements with both central and local government.
Mr Bartels said the Italian government had made available a 10 million dollar loan on extremely concessionary terms for the importation of equipment and machinery for the small-scale and medium-scale agro-businesses, which would generate employment to the youth and increase the incomes of farmers to reduce poverty.
This was in addition to another 500,000 dollars to finance the setting up of a Project Implementation Unit (PIU) to see to its implementation.
Mr Joseph Henry Mensah, Senior Minister and Chairman of the Economic Management Team who chaired the opening ceremony said when the partnership between the government and the private sector was truly constructed it would provide the impetus for the private sector to grow.
GRi../
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