GRi Business, Economics & Finance 21 - 06 - 2002
Common currency ideal for ECOWAS - Kufuor
Ghanair resumes flight to Dusseldorf and Rome on Thursday night.
Common currency ideal for ECOWAS - Kufuor
Accra (Greater Accra) 21 June 2002- President John Agyekum Kufuor on Thursday said the establishment of a common currency would lay the cornerstone for the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS).
He was addressing a 20-member delegation of Ministers and Governors of the West African Monetary Zone (WAMZ) attending their Eighth Convergence Council meeting in Accra, when they called on him at the Castle, Osu.
President Kufuor said: "You are shaping the future of our Sub-Region. Effectiveness and efficiency of Politicians depends on a sound economic base". He said Ghana was committed to the revolution in the developments in the Sub-Region and the establishment of the common currency would become the binding force within ECOWAS.
President Kufuor said with the urgency and importance attached to the common currency, ECOWAS governments would offer the needed assistance to the Ministers and the Governors to provide the means for the Sub-Region to become a formidable force with a large market of about 250 million people.
He said the delegates should assist the ECOWAS to function effectively and take its right place on the continent because the African Union envisaged would be built on such regional blocks.
Dr Moahmmed Ibn Chambas, Executive Secretary of ECOWAS, said efforts would be made to ensure that the necessary review was done to achieve the convergence criteria vital to achieving the common currency. He said with the common currency coupled with trade liberalisation and free movement of people in the Sub-Region, ECOWAS would be put on a high pedestal on the African continent.
Dr Chambas commended President Kufuor for his personal interest and commitment to the establishment of the common currency, adding; "we appreciate your interest and support for the second monetary zone in the Sub-Region".
Ghana, Nigeria, the Gambia, Guinea and Sierra Leone, which are working towards the adoption of a second monetary union, are expected by the year 2003 to achieve single digit inflation and have a foreign exchange reserve that would cover their imports for not less than three months.
Additionally, their budget deficit to their Gross Domestic Product (GDP) should be less than five per cent, while their central banks credit to their governments should be less than 10 per cent of the previous year's tax revenue. None of these countries have fully met the convergence criteria. Though the Gambia achieved these last year it has slipped.
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Ghanair resumes flight to Dusseldorf and
Rome on Thursday night.
Accra (Greater Accra) 21 June 2002- Normal flights of the Ghana Airways Corporation, which were disrupted on Wednesday night as a result of a strike action embarked upon by its Pilots Association resumed on Thursday.
With the resumption, full operations of the airline begin with the flights to Dusseldorf and Rome. A statement in Accra signed by Captain K. Kwakwa, Chairman of the Management Taskforce of Ghanair, said the resumption followed an intervention by Dr Richard Anane, Minister of Roads and Transport.
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Accra (Greater Accra) 21 June 2002- Professor Kwadwo Asenso-Okyere, Director of ISSER, on Thursday said the country's current economy structure would not be able to support government's vision to double the country's Gross Domestic Product by the year 2010.
He said the government's vision was ambitious, taking into account the economy's growth rate, which had averaged less than five per cent in the last decade. "As much as it is desirable to have a higher growth rate, the current structure of the Ghanaian economy is not poised to achieve that," he said at the Launch of the State of the Ghanaian Economy Report, 2001 in Accra.
The ISSER (Institute of Statistics, Social and Economic Research) Director said to put the country on the path of growth, government needed as a first step to transform the economy from reliance on few export commodities to enable it achieve growth rates of between eight to 10 per cent.
The report reviewed the performance of the economy against the backdrop of the decision to opt for Highly Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) initiative, the introduction of the Ghana Government Index-Linked Bonds and the passage by Parliament of the new Bank of Ghana Act as well as the significant events for economic management last year and also made projections for 2002.
The report said all key macro-economic measures were stabilised last year despite a fall in the prices of the country's major export commodities. It said the results were achieved because of government's fiscal discipline and less reliance on the banking sector for funds.
Prof Asenso-Okyere said the greatest challenge that faced the economy now was how to sustain and deepen the macroeconomic stability that was achieved in
2001 as well as create the environment to mobilise both domestic and international resources to create wealth.
He said for the government's declaration of 'a golden age of business' to succeed there was the need to establish a link between the agricultural and industrial sectors to obtain the desired multiplier effects. "There is the need to target some products and provide the required support to move them through the supply chain."
The ISSER Director also called for a regular review of the tariff structure so that tariff levels did not discriminate against local industry and urged Parliament to pass the competition bill to ensure fair competition.
Prof Asenso-Okyere said integration into the global economy was important for realising the objectives of the golden age of business and called for efforts to develop consistent sectoral policies in line with the rules of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) for Ghana to take advantage of the new multilateral trading system.
Prof Asenso-Okyere also asked government to take into account the dynamics of the country's increasing population in planning development programmes, saying without it there would not be any substantial improvements in the people's living standards.
He said various development plans drawn by governments since independence had failed to make the desired impact because they did not take into account the population issue.
Dr Sam Mensah, Director, SEM Associates Limited, said to make progress with macro-economic stability it was essential to deal with the root causes of destabilisation in the economy. He said it was equally important to provide binding and predictable rules to stem the symptoms of instability so that economic outcomes would be more predictable.
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