GRi Business, Economics & Finance 27 - 05 - 2002
Two Italian Companies to invest in Ghana
Kumasi Metro establishes business committee
Ashaiman (Greater Accra) 27 May 2002 - Two Italian companies have declared their intention to invest in food processing and aluminium products in the country and have proposed to open a factory at Ashaiman.
The first investor is expected to arrive in the country in June to undertake feasibility studies, Mr Emmanuel K. K. Teye, Member of Parliament (MP) for Ashaiman, disclosed this at the weekend but did not give the names of the companies.
He was interacting with the Ashaiman Youth Coalition (AYC), whose membership cuts across the political spectrum, at a forum organised to outline his programme of action and explain current national issues. He dismissed criticisms that the New Patriotic Party (NPP) government had failed to deliver on its pre-election promise to generate employment for the youth, saying job avenues were being created first and foremost.
The MP promised to run a transparent and open administration and urged them to contribute ideas for the developments of the area. Mr Teye expressed regret that Ashaiman had been associated with crimes and things negative and entreated the youth to work hard to correct the wrong impression.
On sanitation, Mr Teye stated that all places of convenience built at unauthorised sites would be demolished because they created nuisance and caused health problems for residents. He said hawkers on the main streets would also be re-located to give way to vehicular movements.
Mr Ibrahim Baidoo, Assembly Member for Manmmomo Electoral Area called on the youth to come together to help plan development programmes saying viable projects could attract financial support from the Tema Municipal Assembly. He advised them to get involved in the unit committee elections, to enable them to mobilise the people in their area to initiate development projects.
Mr Etsiba Mensah, Tema Municipal Youth Co-ordinator of the National Youth Council (NYC), appealed to the authorities to expedite work on plans to train the youth to make them employable, noting that the youth were normally forced into social vices because they had nothing to engage them. The youth of Ashaiman commended Mr Teye for being the first MP to initiate a forum to deliberate on matters of the area and urged him to continue doing so.
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Kumasi (Ashanti Region) 27 May 2002 - The Kumasi Metropolitan Assembly (KMA) has established a committee to draw a programme to facilitate business activities in the metropolis. Mr Maxwell Kofi Jumah, Metropolitan Chief Executive (MCE), announced this on Friday during an interaction with media personnel in Kumasi.
Speaking during the interaction to commemorate his first year in office, the MCE said the programme would make it easier to identify the various businesses and to initiate measures to support people requiring assistance. Mr Jumah expressed regret that the craze in Kumasi was for building stores, which he said, was not healthy enough for a city.
He noted that some cities had collapsed because they did not have an economic base and said KMA would lay a solid foundation for the metropolis. Mr Jumah also said KMA would ensure that the people had the requisite skills to enable them to create jobs instead relying on government alone for assistance.
He mentioned that the lack of designated areas for the various artisans in Kumasi made it difficult to group them under one umbrella to facilitate their work. Mr Jumah said he had survived four attempts of vote of no confidence admitting that he could not fulfil all the promises he made. Mr Jumah, however, said he had accomplished a lot stating that KMA was undertaking refuse collection and the rehabilitation of roads in the metropolis.
The MCE said the KMA would not be able to install streetlights in Kumasi because the assembly could not provide about 60 per cent of transformers at the cost of 66 billion cedis, adding that the assembly's revenue was 3.6 billion cedis at the time of the projects.
He commended the media for educating the people on the assembly's activities and government policies and urged journalists to meet the people regularly to assess their work. Mr Jumah advised politicians and other people in leadership positions to be circumspect in their pronouncements.
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