GRi Business, Economics & Finance

Accra (Greater Accra) 22 January 2003- The Trades Union Congress (TUC) on Tuesday said it recognized the need for government to increase fuel prices in the face of unstable macro economic factors but rejected the automatic price adjustment formula being implemented as a means to recover full cost.

Kwasi Adu-Amankwah, the TUC Secretary-General, said at a press conference in Accra that Ghana was not ready to work with such formulas because the nature of the country's macro economic environment lends itself easily to effects of external shocks.

He said Ghana could implement such a policy only when it had instituted appropriate measures for safeguarding the well being of the population. Government on Friday announced a near 100 percent increase in fuel prices that has generated a heated public debate.

Adu-Amankwah said there was the need for government to address itself to the fundamental challenge of economic planning and its execution as a means of economic management where market forces could be allowed to play a beneficial role through monitoring.

"Failure to begin to address these fundamentals reduces to an exercise in futility all the pressures which eventually led to the decision to raise the prices of petroleum products by up to nearly 100 per cent," he said.

"Without putting the economy on the path of transformation based on our own resources and inventiveness, the cedi will sooner or later slide substantially against the hard currencies, and this will call for a further hike.

"When this is coupled with the least external shock, an example being another Gulf War, we could be compelled again and again to go through the political and economic crisis that hikes in petroleum products can produce."

Adu-Amamkwah urged the government to, without further delay, develop an active dialogue with the people on an economic plan structured around the pillars of agriculture, industrialization, harnessing of science and technology and the mobilization of human resources for the exploitation of natural resources.

"In our view, it is only within the parameters of such a plan stimulated by active state intervention that market forces can play a role in the critical transformation of our economy from a low-valued raw material producing economy."

Adu-Amankwah noted that it was time for stakeholders to come out with a realistic incomes policy. "We agree on the need for an immediate adjustment of wages and salaries to enable workers to cope with the changes in prices of petroleum prices but we demand that the wage increases be made in the context of a movement towards realistic wages that allow workers to meet the demands of the market."

Adu-Amankwah suggested that government provide on regular basis information on the petroleum sector and other areas of the economy for the people to better assess the economic management of the country.

Meanwhile, government has announced that it would announce salary adjustments next week. Senior Minister, Joseph Henry Mensah said the salary hike would be bout 20 per cent.

GRi…/

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Respect ECOWAS protocols - Deputy Minister

Accra (Greater Accra) 22 January 2003- Ghana on Tuesday asked her West African trading partners to respect agreed protocols of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) to make business operations viable in the region.

She said the non-compliance with laid down agreed protocols is not in the spirit of deepening ECOWAS brotherhood and does not ensure that individual and corporate businessmen and women benefit from the activities they engage in.

Akwasi Osei-Adjei, Deputy Minister of Trade and Industry, said it was ironic that some ECOWAS countries, after signing agreements, failed to honour them, putting countries that honoured them at "gross disadvantage".

Osei-Adjei said this in an interview with the Ghana News Agency (GNA) Business Desk after launching the 3rd ECOWAS Trade Fair in Accra. The Fair would be held in the Togolese capital, Lome, from 7 to 16 March, 2003.

Senegal and Ghana hosted the first two fairs in 1995 and 1999 respectively. Osei-Adjei said the subject of mounting trade barriers within the francophone sections of the sub-region had been discussed at several times.

“For now, I believe that it must be taken to the summit level for it to be resolved.” “It is regrettable that we are not respecting the ECOWAS Trade Liberalisation Scheme (ELTS) that we put in place to promote trade among ourselves.”

He said Ghana had removed all trade barriers in her territory and could stand up to say, “We have no such barriers within our borders. Ghana respects all the protocols.”

Dr Kwesi Nduom, Minister of Economic Planning and Regional Integration, in a speech read for him at the launch, noted that there was the need to remove trade barriers to facilitate the movement of goods and persons.

"Administrative and physical barriers of trade, whether legal or illegal, significantly slow down intra-regional trade, increase cost in the transport chain and reduce the competitiveness of local products from the point of production to the sub-regional and international markets."

He said the lack of political will of member states to commit themselves resolutely to the integration process and the difficulty in exploiting national complementarities point to the need for flexible and pragmatic approach to the integration process.

He said a multi-track approach reflecting the different national interests was most desirable. Ms Esther Ofori, Chief Executive of the Ghana Trade Fair Company, said the government was taking up 75 percent of the haulage and exhibition space for the Fair.

"This means that exhibitors will have to pay only 25 per cent for the construction of their stands which is fixed at $20 per square metre, and 850 cedis per kilo for the haulage of goods to Lome.

GRi…/

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Trade Houses to be established- Minister

Accra (Greater Accra) 22 January 2003- Dr Kofi Konadu Apraku, Minister of Trade and Industry on Tuesday opened a Ghana Trade House at Port Louis in Mauritius to serve as the focal point for Ghana's intensified trade and investment efforts in that country.

A statement by the Ministry in Accra said the ceremony formed part of the Minister's visit to Mauritius where he attended the AGOA Forum during which he co-chaired a session on financing Small and Medium Enterprises (SME's) with the US Under-Secretary of Treasury, John Taylor.

Apraku said various discussions are on-going to open other Trade Houses in Malaysia and Singapore, adding that more than a dozen Mauritian, Indian and Spanish firms were planning to visit Ghana to follow up discussions held at the forum with the view to setting up businesses in Ghana.

He announced that, various companies, including, the Berlin Textiles would start the production of T-shirts and jeans in the country from March this year. He said another company, Speedway Company, was near completion of negotiations to build a Garment and Textiles Village at Tema under the Presidents Special Initiative.

Fuskhia, a Mauritius firm, Dr Apraku said, has also signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Ministry to develop a sugar plantation and refinery. Fuskhia is also at an advanced stage of negotiations with the State Housing Corporation to construct 20,000 housing units. Taylor, the US Under-Secretary on the request of Dr Apraku, said Ghana would be selected as the pilot country for an IFC-SME's financing project.

GRi…/

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Government receives $1m dividend

Accra (Greater Accra) 22 January 2002- Goldfields Ghana Limited on Tuesday presented a cheque for $1m as dividend to government for the year 2001 and 2002.

The amount represents 10 per cent of the company's declared profits for its operations for the period. Mike Ezan, Executive Director of Goldfields, pledged the company's continuous commitment to honouring its obligations to the country as well as the community in which it operates.

He asked for government support for the company's operations at all times to enable it to operate in a conducive environment. Kwadjo Adjei-Darko, the Minister of Mines who received the cheque on behalf of government, asked the mining companies to adopt a co-ordinated approach to the alternative livelihood programme they were embarking on to assist the communities within which they operate.

He said it was necessary for them to liaise with the local and district assemblies and the Ministry of Manpower Development in fashioning out and in implementing the alternative livelihood programmes.

"The companies can support the skills training for the youth in the area before deploying them in whatever fields they wanted them to be engaged in," he added. Adjei-Darko said government was working to ensure regular payment of royalties to minimise the community demands on mining companies operating in their areas. As part of the efforts to ensure regular payment, royalties would be captured in the budget as a statutory item to permit timely releases of the money.

GRi…/

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President's Initiative on the Oil Palm to be launched

Accra (Greater Accra) 22 January 2003-The President's Initiative on Oil Palm would be launched nation-wide in April, this year. The venue and other logistics were being worked out by a four-member Committee headed by Nana Otuo Siriboe II, Juabenhene.

This was disclosed by Kwabena Agyapong, Press Secretary to the President when briefing the Presidential Press Corps after the Committee had presented its Interim Report to President John Kufuor at the Castle, Osu on Tuesday.

He said President Kufuor had directed the Ministries of Finance and Trade and Industry to liaise with the Committee to work efficiently and effectively. Agyapong said the Committee was of the view that the Oil Palm Industry had great potentials and the benefits to be accrued from it to the economy could make a tremendous impact.

He said the Committee had initiated nursery plantations to cultivate 100,000 hectares over the next three years to make up for the shortfall of the 940,000 tonnes in local consumption of palm oil.

The Press Secretary said individuals had to import about 940,000 tonnes of palm oil annually in addition to 1.2m tones in the Sub-Region. He said the Committee noted that it would require 300,000 hectares of oil palm plantations to satisfy this demand and required an aggressive support from the government to offer an opportunity for wealth and job creation as well as improvement in the quality of lives in the rural areas.

Agyapong said nucleus farms, small-holder farms and out-grower schemes would be established to feed oil mills in areas known to be viable for oil palm plantation in the country.

He said to mitigate problems of land litigation; the Committee suggested that reclaimed lands in mining areas should be used as the stock of land for prospective investors in the industry.

Other members of the Committee are, Ishmael Yamson, Chairman of UNILEVER, Kwasi Poku a Chemical Engineer and Dr J.B. Wonkyi-Appiah, former Director of the Oil Palm Institute. The President had initiated other Special Initiatives, these were the Cassava Starch for Industrial purposes and Textiles and Garments.

GRi…/

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