Operations of Ghana Airways being reviewed - Kufuor
Japan to give 8 billion-cedi food aid grant to Ghana
Ghana gets 200,000 dollars UNIDO support for sorghum project
Accra (Greater Accra) 24 May 2002- Ghana Skills Bank, a database of inventory of professional qualifications and experiences of Ghanaians living particularly in the United States and other parts of the world would be launched in Washington DC on 29 June.
The Bank geared towards the creation of a bigger space for Ghana's development agenda, would also measure Ghana's human resource strength that could be tapped for use especially in the fields of capacity building for health, information technology, agriculture, investment promotion and other sectors.
A statement issued from the Ghana Embassy in Washington and signed by Mr Ivor Agyeman-Duah, Minister Counsellor for Information and Director of Public Affairs to the Ghana News Agency (GNA) in Accra on Thursday, said; " the ability to measure the human development strength of Ghana in the US and the desire to use technology as its vehicle is the only sure way to progress in the technological age".
It said; "Ghana has some of the most powerful professionals working in sensitive positions in America but because we can only estimate, those of them who are even willing to help, cannot. We are unable to congregate let alone plot strategies for the sake of the home front".
The statement said while remittances home constituted a good amount of foreign revenue, it was still not the best axis on which to wheel the country's developmental aims. "Ghanaians do not necessarily need to re-locate to Ghana before they can transfer their skills, we can do that through the computer, " it added.
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Accra (Greater Accra) 24 May 2002- President John Agyekum Kufuor on Thursday said the operations of the national airline, Ghana Airways were being reviewed to make it viable.
He said the airline had a viable agreement with Alitalia but unfortunately it had incurred huge debts due to mismanagement. "Alitalia should be patient with us as we study the problem critically and find a solution to them for the friendship between Ghana and Italy to continue," he said when a 16-member delegation from Italy paid a courtesy call on him at the Castle, Osu.
The delegation, which is on a three-day visit to Ghana, includes Parliamentarians, investors and businessmen. It discussed assistance to the Ghana Poverty Reduction Strategies (GPRS) and the 22.1 million Euros owed to Alitalia by the Ghana Airways.
Italy has agreed to assist Ghana to establish vocational and technical centres in every region where teachers with the requisite skills would be trained in Italy. President Kufuor said the agreement between the two airlines was viable but unfortunately Ghana Airways incurred huge debts as a result of mismanagement and over-aged aircraft.
He said government was prepared to restructure and modernise the operations of the airline because the passenger market was good. President Kufuor said the long existing relationship between Ghana and Italy would be further deepened and strengthened because Ghana needed development partners prepared to assist the country to be the pedestals of economic development in the Sub-Region.
Dr Gianantonio Arnold, an Italian Parliamentarian and member of the delegation, said Italy was prepared to assist African countries such as Ghana, which had democracy and rule of law well established. He said their assistance to Ghana would be centred on co-operation between the two Parliaments, co-operation and protection of Italian investments and review of double taxation in Ghana as well as provision of some infrastructure for development.
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Accra (Greater) 24 May 20002- Ghana and Japan on Thursday signed and exchanged notes on an 18 billion-cedi Japanese food aid for Ghana. Under the agreement, rice would BE imported to meet increasing domestic demand, complement the country's self-help efforts to meet food demand and also contribute to improving Ghana's balance of payment position.
Proceeds from the sale of the rice would be accumulated as counter-value fund by the government of Ghana for the implementation of social development projects including those related to increasing food production.
The agreement is for 2001 as the Japanese financial year is from April to March. Mr Motoyoshi Noro, the Charge d'Affaires at the Japanese Embassy, signed for Japan and Mr Hackman Owusu-Agyemang, Minister of Foreign Affairs, signed for Ghana.
Mr Noro said the Japanese government was pleased with efforts of the Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MOFA) to increase rice production to reduce imports by 30 per cent by 2004. He said the agricultural sector was one of the target areas of the Ghana Poverty Reduction Strategy and Japanese Co-operation with Ghana.
He added that one of the remarkable Japanese contributions to the sector was the Small-Scale Irrigated Agriculture Promotion Project (SSIAPP). Under the SSIAPP, Japanese experts in collaboration with their Ghanaian counterparts have been supporting small-scale farmers to modernise farming systems and to reactivate farmers associations at Ashaiman in the Greater Accra Region and Okyereko in the Central Region.
He expressed the hope that the experiences at Ashaiman and Okyereko would be shared with farmers in other regions as a manifestation of Japan's project-type technical co-operation. Mr Owusu-Agyemang thanked the Japanese government for the grant and said the rice that would be made available through the grant would in the interim break the gap between consumption and local production.
He said the government was working assiduously to increase the production of rice and other cereals to make up for the shortfall and said it was the avowed aim of the government to make the country self-sufficient in food production so that it would no longer become a receiver of food aid. Mr Owusu-Agyemang gave Japan the assurance that proceeds from the grant would be transparently used and accounted for to maintain the good faith that "Japan has in us".
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Accra (Greater Accra) 24 May 2002 - The United Nations Industrial Development Organisation (UNIDO) has made available 200,000 dollars to support the cultivation of sorghum in Ghana. This will help the country's breweries in their efforts to replace imported malt with sorghum as a way of reducing production cost.
Mr Abubakar Saddique Boniface, Deputy Minister of Trade and Industry, who was speaking in an interview on his return from Vienna after attending the 25th session of the UNIDO Board meeting, said the money was to support the setting up of the project and to enable the breweries to conduct research into the use of the cereal.
He said the breweries have also agreed to support the farmers to grow the sorghum especially in the Ejura and Techiman areas. The farmers would serve as out-growers to the breweries, which would in turn ensure ready market for the farmers produce.
Mr Boniface said the project is to generate more employment and to ensure that the breweries would have a local substitute for their imported raw material. The membership of the UNIDO board is on two to three years' rotational basis and comprises 52 countries.
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Tamale Northern Region) 24 May 2002- The Northern Region Rice Growers Association intends to cultivate 4,800 acres of rice this year. The association would be expected to produce 72,000 maxi-bags of paddy rice if the weather conditions are favourable.
An acre of land is expected to yield 15 bags of rice averagely. Mr. Alidu Ibrahim, Credit Officer of the Tamale branch of the Agricultural Development Bank (ADB) announced this at a day's workshop in Tamale.
The workshop, which was organised for 44 members of the Rice Growers Association to educate them on modern techniques in rice production, was sponsored by ADB. He said 12 co-operatives had been formed under the association and each would be expected to cultivate 400 acres of rice.
Mr. Ibrahim said 12 tractors had been released to the association for land preparation. The farmers treated topics on group formation and group dynamics, land preparation for good paddy production, agronomy of rice production, records-keeping and loans-making and recoveries. The Credit Officer attributed the low rice production in the region to the erratic rainfall pattern last year.
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