Composite flour for local market
Accra (Greater Accra) 06 May 2002 - The Ghana Investors' Advisory Council (GIAC) Chaired by President John Agyekum Kufuor on Friday, identified 18 areas affecting investments in the country for action by November this year.
The issues were land regulatory reforms, mining and labour laws and safety and security. Others were infrastructure especially energy, telecommunications, Information Technology (IT), financial service and public sector sensitivity to the private sector.
The rest were restoring the mining sector to be competitive, re-orienting the economy from commodity and aid-dependency to a more diversified one and the promotion of partnership between government, private sector, industry and labour. This was contained in a communiqué issued and read by Mr Ken Ofori-Atta, Chief Executive Officer of the Databank at the end of the first meeting of the Council in Accra.
It said the Minister of Private Sector and the Office of the President would co-ordinate with the various ministries to ensure implementation and resolution of the issues, adding that, the Council would meet in November to evaluate the action taken and recommendations made. The council agreed to appeal to Ghana's missions outside to promote the country as an investment destination and urged the President to travel with private sector operators on his future trips abroad.
The Council, which was inaugurated before the meeting is a small high level and informal group comprising 26 top-level executives of foreign and Ghanaian businesses such as CMS Energy Company, Ecobank, Heineken, Ashanti Goldfields as well as individuals from the private sector, is to foster more understanding between the government and companies driving investments.
The Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Mr Horst Kohler who attended the meeting and the World Bank Managing Director, Mr James Wolfensen mooted the idea when they met President Kufuor in Bamako, Mali last year. The Council would convene once or twice a year for the next two years.
GRi../
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Tema (Greater Accra) 06 May 2002 -- Ghana Agro Foods Company (GAFCO) would soon produce composite flour (mixture of wheat, cassava, and corn flour) for the local market and possibly export to supplement the solely wheat flour on the market. The product, which is at the experimental stage, would be produced in large quantities after educating the public on the new product.
Mr Pio Melchior, Production Manager of GAFCO told the Tema branch of the Ghana Bakers Association (GBA) during a day's seminar that the company would step up education of the new product for the consuming public to prepare their taste for the new product.
Ghanaians have been used to eating bread made of 100 percent flour produced by the flourmills in both Takoradi and Tema. Mr. Melchior said the composite flour is selling fast on the Cote D' Ivoire market and hoped Ghanaians would patronise it to blend their taste of the product.
GRi../
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