GRi Business, Economics & Finance 05 - 07 - 2002
Technology Centres facilitating expansion of industries
Five companies bid for water commercialisation project
GHACEM faces stiff competition, production down by
400,000 tonnes
Tema (Greater Accra) 05 July 2002- Cement production at Ghana Cement Works has gone down from 1.1 million tonnes to 700,000 tonnes per annum following stiff competition, Mr Per David Borenstein, Acting Works Manager, said on Thursday.
Mr Borenstein, who was speaking at the inauguration of a seven-member executive of the local union, said the stiff competition came from West Africa Cement Works (WACEM) that entered the market two years ago and was building a new factory at Aflao.
He said another company had plans to put up a cement import terminal in Tema and "this will definitely break the monopoly that GHACEM has enjoyed for almost 30 years. Therefore, employees are required to reduce cost in order to face the challenges ahead".
Mr Borenstein appealed to the union executives not to use the resources at their disposal and time to generate internal conflicts between management and workers but co-operate with management in the struggle for the continued existence of GHACEM.
Mr Bjarne Schmidt, Managing Director, said the increased competition that GHACEM faced called for new workers' attitude. "This is because the company that would survive the competition would be the most efficient producer in terms of operational cost and market efficiency.''
Swearing in the officers, Mr Morgan Ayawine, Regional Officer of the Industrial and Commercial Workers Union (ICU), called on them to lead in the crusade to raise productivity. Mr Kenneth Keegan Ocran, Chairman of the seven-member executive, promised that members would run an open administration and urged other workers to feel free to approach them with any issue they were not clear about.
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Wa (Upper West Region) 05 July 2002- Small-Scale industries are expanding as a result of the establishment of Regional Technology Transfer Centres, Mr Francis Agyei Dankwa, Chairman of Upper West Region Technology Transfer Clients Association, said on Thursday. He said apart from this expansion, the industrialists were also training more unemployed youth.
Under the programme, industrialists have been assisted to acquire machinery on hire purchase basis, and have been capitalised and have received training in engineering drawing, production planning and work scheduling. Mr Dankwa said this at Wa during the regional celebration of Scientific Renaissance of Africa Day.
He said the programme had also equipped apprentices with skills in carpentry, blacksmithing, dressmaking and food processing. Mr Dankwa appealed to the government, through the Social Investment Fund, to assist small-scale industrialists to develop their potentials towards the development of the country.
Mr Sahanun Mogtari, Upper West Regional Minister, called on small-scale industrialists to liaise with polytechnics, technical and vocational schools to improve on their skills. He commended Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) and the European Union for their continued support to the programme to bring technology to the doorsteps of Ghanaian
Mr Mogti Dubick, Regional RTTC Director, gave the assurance that the centre would continue to support and train more unemployed youth to gain skills to be self-reliant.
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Five companies bid for water commercialisation
project
Accra (Greater Accra) 05 July 2002- The Minister of Works and Housing on Thursday announced that five international companies were bidding for the leasing and management of the country's water systems, which would take off next April under the Private Sector Participation (PSP) Project.
Mr Yaw Barimah, who was explaining the point to the Ghana News Agency after addressing a day's seminar on the PSP in Accra said the business framework for the leasing arrangement had been defined and two out of the undisclosed companies would be selected under the deal to boost water supply from the current 59 per cent to 85 per cent of the population in 10 years.
He dismissed public speculations that private sector participation in the sector would lead to an increased in water tariffs, saying, "it is the Public Utilities Regulatory Commission (PURC) that determines tariffs and not the investor."The PURC would consider the interest of both consumers and investors and strike a good compromise for the country."
The seminar, which formed part of the public awareness campaign on the commercialisation process was organised by the Water Sector Restructuring Secretariat (WSRS) of The Ministry of Works and Housing in collaboration with the Institute of Economic Affairs for stakeholders.
Mr Barimah said the principal objective of the water sector was to increase access to potable water at affordable rates. "While seeking to increase access we have to maintain existing systems...laid 50 - 70 years ago and need to be replaced.
"There is some level of public misunderstanding and misconception of the restructuring process. Sometimes it is plain misrepresentation borne out of ideological dogmas." The Minister called for intellectual debate on the issue "to help in distilling the facts from the fiction."
Mr Emmanuel Nkrumah, Water Engineer with the WSRS, said the private participation in the water sector had been necessitated by deteriorating infrastructure, institutional deficiencies that adversely affected demand and supply of water as a result of low cost recovery arising out of low tariffs.
He said there was the need for a huge investment of about 1.2 billion dollars for the next 10 years to streamline the situation before the eventual collapse of the inefficient and over-aged water systems.
Mr Nkrumah said countries like Cote d'Ivoire, Senegal, Guinea and the Gambia, which have implemented similar PSP projects were able to raise the supply of potable water, improved on efficiency in supply and boosted tariff collection.
Mr Osei Kyei Mensah Bonsu, Government's Chief Whip, who chaired the function, called for national consensus to facilitate the smooth implementation of the PSP. He said the emotional debate over the issue was counter-productive, arguing that the only interest of the government in the project was to implement the laudable project started by its predecessor to revamp the water sector.
Participants at the seminar called on the WSRC to step up public awareness campaign about the numerous benefits of the project and avoid the lapses that were likely to impede its successful implementation.
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