More than 350 people trained on textiles initiative
Accra (Greater Accra)
11 October 2002- Credit support to small-scale poultry farmers is to be renewed
this year, Dr Oppong Anane, Deputy Director of Animal Production, Ministry of
Food and Agriculture, announced on Thursday.
The government, he
said, had also taken delivery of a 5.2 million dollar facility from the African
Development Bank for on-lending to poultry farmers under the livestock
improvement project, to enable them buy drugs and equipment among other things.
Contributing to a
roundtable discussion in Accra on support policies for the poultry sector, Dr
Anane said the government was tapping ideas of all key players in the industry
to enable it formulate a vibrant policy.
The Ghana Centre for
Democratic Development organised the discussion to provide an opportunity for
policy formulators and other stakeholders to examine support policies on the
protection of the local poultry industry.
Participants
criticised the country's lack of a workable agricultural policy, saying the
sector would collapse if good policies were not drawn to solve the numerous
problems affecting its development.
According to them a
government policy backed by the appropriate legislation was necessary to ensure
that the poultry industry's development agenda was implemented to the full to
boost people's interest in the sector.
They said the
government's call to people, especially the youth, to take up employment in
farming would fail unless express attention was paid to resolving the problems
facing the agricultural sector to make it attractive for businessmen to invest
both money and time in it.
The Participants
urged government to expedite action on the formulation of a comprehensive
workable policy to encourage both investors and other key players into the
sector to boost food production.
They also called for
the protection of agricultural imports, especially poultry products from
countries where they were heavily subsidised, to ensure the survival of the
local industry.
Mr Kenneth Quartey,
Chairman of the Ghana National Association of Poultry Farmers (GNAFF) said
government support for the poultry sector was necessary to ensure growth and
should not be seen as an act of favouritism, adding that, the high cost of
production could not be borne by farmers alone.
Mr Quartey drew
attention to the importance of subsidies to farmers in reducing some of the
cost, saying that the benefits of such interventions were not only to the
farmers but also to the whole country.
"World-wide,
government support and intervention in the food production industry has been
necessary and is common practice," he said. Mr Quartey questioned the rise
in the importation of frozen chicken, which increased from 11 million dollars
in the year 2000 to 26 million dollars last year.
Mr Kwabena Darko, a
renowned poultry farmer, stressed the need for all stakeholders to be involved
in the policy formulation for the sector.
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Lawra (Upper West) 11
October 2002- The Ministry of Local Government and Rural
Development is
setting up a trust fund into which companies could pay contributions to promote
development programmes in the rural areas.
Known as the Rural
Development Trust Fund, it is expected to enhance and make development
programmes more meaningful to the rural population. Mr. Kwadwo Baah-Wiredu, the
sector minister, said this when addressing a durbar of chiefs and people of the
Lawra District at Lawra on Wednesday.
It was organised in
honour of President Agyekum Kufuor to climax his three-day working visit to the
Upper West Region. Mr Baah-Wiredu reminded beneficiaries of the various loan
facilities given out by the district assemblies that they were not gifts and
should be repaid.
He said district
assemblies had started instituting legal actions to recover loans given out
before the NPP assumed office. Dr Richard Anane, Minister of Roads and
Transport, said 35 new steel bridges would be constructed throughout the region
next year.
He assured the people
that all on-going road projects in the district would be completed and new ones
added. "The NPP government would develop the roads in the region to
enhance economic activities so that the people can feel they belong to Ghana,''
he said.
Mr Clement Eledi,
Deputy Minister of Mines, called on the people to allow peace to prevail in the
region so that they could enjoy the benefits of positive change. He regretted
that the government was spending millions of cedis on peacekeeping troops at
Wa, Bawku and Yendi.
Mr Eledi appealed to
chiefs, elders and opinion leaders to evolve suitable conflict resolution
mechanisms to resolve these disputes. Mr Sylvanus Ganfaa, the District Chief
Executive, said the assembly planned to develop the Black Volta River as a
source of water for dry season gardening.
He therefore,
appealed for funds to acquire pumping machines, pipes and fencing material. Mr
Ganfaa said the assembly had so far given 397 million cedis as loans to groups
and individuals.
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Accra (Greater Accra)
11 October 2002- The Unite Nations (UN) Conference on Trade and Development
(UNCTAD) said on Thursday that Ghana could once again become an attractive
destination for Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in Africa if several actions
were taken to restore investor confidence.
These include
restoration of macro-economic stability, strengthening infrastructure,
increasing productivity and securing local business partners. It also called
for a sustained sterling economic performance and removal of causes of the
prolonged economic crisis of the past to enable the nation to recover lost
grounds in FDI.
These were the main
conclusions of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development Report on
Ghana's Investment Policy Review, which is being examined at a day's investment
forum in Accra on Thursday.
Various stakeholders
are looking at the Review to enable them to formulate programmes that would
enhance investment flow into the country. The UNCTAD Investment Policy Reviews
are intended to help countries improve their investment policies and to
familiarise governments and the international private sector with the
investment environment in those countries.
The Investment Policy
Review on Ghana was initiated at the request of Ghana Investment and Promotion
Centre (GIPC) and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. According to the Report,
although the investment framework was generally sound and non-discriminatory to
investors, some of the provisions crafted in the last 10 years were no longer
relevant to new investment concerns.
It, therefore,
recommended a review of some of the provisions of the Investment code, with the
view to easing restrictions on establishment and ownership of companies. The
report said there was the need to place the tax system on an equal footing with
international standards, particularly withholding tax, tax auditing and tax
administration.
It advocated for the
establishment of a task force to reform land laws and establishment of land
banks to facilitate foreign and domestic freehold or leasehold ownership.
The report also
recommended the launch of a booster programme to revive investment by domestic
and established foreign investors to encourage expansion of existing businesses
and re-investment by investors in new projects.
"The booster
programme should address issues that can be reviewed and implemented within six
months to one year, with concrete results envisaged over a three-year time
frame," the Report said.
It recommended that a
task force should be established to review the tariff structure and remove inconsistencies,
especially in the structure of import duty that discriminated against local
assemblers and manufacturers.
"Encourage
existing manufacturers to expand and diversify," the report said, adding,
"All new investments in production capacity could get accelerated
depreciation allowance that allows write-off within three years."
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Accra (Greater Accra)
11 October 2002- Political instability and a weak cultural mindset have been
identified as drawbacks to Ghana's advance into becoming an economic giant on
the continent.
Making reference to
what political stability could do to a country, Dr Kwesi Ndoum, Minister of
Economic Planning and Regional Integration, said it was a sure way of boosting
economic activity, increasing investor confidence and moving the nation forward
on several fronts.
Dr Ndoum said at a
day's workshop to review Ghana's Investment Policy in Accra on Thursday that
Ghana would be a better place to live in if the nation did away with political
upheavals and changed its poor cultural mentality to a productive lifestyle.
"Abrupt ends to
governments have since the 1960s resulted in the abandonment of viable and
constructive development projects which usually are not continued by those who
take power. After 45 years we are poorer today than at independence."
Dr Ndoum noted that
the several development plans including the Vision 2020, the blueprint for
socio-economic development produced by the National Democratic Congress (NDC),
had not worked.
He said 1951-1959
development plan "worked to about 70 per cent with the building of the
Tema Motorway, Korle Bu Hospital, Tema and Takoradi harbours, and a number of
secondary schools in the country, but it was halted.
The Minister urged
Ghanaians to drop their "weak cultural mindset" and ensure that they
become productive, adopt good practices and not fall back to "Ghanaian
culture" as excuses for their inability to do things right.
"We as a people
must adopt a significant shift in national culture and the way we do things to
ensure that we are not left behind." Dr Ndoum called for urgent attention
to these two areas in discussing the new national vision that begins tomorrow.
Mr Kwesi Abeasi,
Chief Executive of the Ghana Investment Promotion Centre (GIPC) said the
conference falls in line with activities to make the centre achieve its set
objectives of a one-stop shop for investment.
He expressed regret
that direct foreign investment flow has been slow, describing it as
"unsatisfactory", especially after the events of 11 September attacks
on New York and Washington in the US.
"What is
refreshing is that it has led to a general slow down in the entire world
economy and by this we can reposition ourselves to start things afresh."
Dr Khalil Hamdani of UNCTAD attributed Ghana's peculiar situation to an
un-sustained inflow of foreign direct investment.
He said Ghana has the
potential even though it is currently listed as the 20th in Africa in terms of
foreign direct investment. Dr Hamdani said Ghana is not tapping enough from its
traditional linkages for investment in the world.
The conference
coordinated by the UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) and GIPC,
aims at fine-tuning Ghana's Investment Code and maximising foreign direct
investment while raising per capita income considerably.
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Accra (Greater Accra)
11 October 2002- Mr Michael Kwashie, Managing Proprietor of Kwashie Tailors,
one of 14 garment factories selected to participate in the Presidents’s Special
Initiative (PSI) on Textiles, on Thursday said over 350 people have received
training and are waiting to begin mass production.
In an interview with
the Ghana News Agency (GNA), he lauded the initiative but pointed out that the
way it is being implemented was not too smooth. He said those trained are
currently locked up at the training centre, Volta Garments Limited (VGL) in
Accra, producing only a few garments.
He said under the PSI
scheme, each of the 14 selected garment factories is to train and employ 300
people. The 14 factories were selected after a thorough assessment of their
activities by an American consultancy firm, J.T. Penny. The assessment was
based on quality of products, management, sales and other criteria.
Mr Kwashie said to
date each of the 14 factories has since February this year trained at least 25
personnel in various skills such as stitching, cutting and knitting at VGL.
"We are of the view that government should have ensured that the
establishment of the factory went in tandem with the training of the
personnel," he said. "The kind of training we are giving them takes
between three to six months to complete."
He said normal
apprenticeship takes about five years to complete but this one is to enable
trainees to perform specific tasks in tailoring. Mr Kwashie said this is the
first time any government in Ghana has actively involved the garment industry
in the national development process and "we the players in the industry
welcome it."
"This initiative
will not only boost the industry, but also get several young people off the
streets into gainful employment. The relatively shorter period of training and
the 150,000 cedis government allowance for the trainees is enough motivation
for young people to participate," he noted.
He said at the moment
the trainees have produced shirts and other garments of international quality
and standard, which are being marketed locally. He added that there is a big
market for the products but not enough hands to meet the demand.
"Kwashie Tailors
alone currently has an order of 7,000 pairs of trousers by one American
customer, but we do not have the hands to meet the demand. If we are able to
train more hands we could meet some of these high demands in no time."
Mr Kwashie appealed
to the government and its development partners to expedite the establishment of
a proposed garment factory to ensure speedy training of apprentices. In a
related development, Mr Isaac Osei, Ghana's High Commissioner to the United
Kingdom, told the GNA that Ghana could carve a niche for itself in that
country, if the local garment industry met standards of quality, price and
demand.
He said the PSI on
textiles is laudable, but the players in the industry needed to take advantage
of it and make it work for them and for the nation as a whole. "Government
has decided not to do business, but rather to create the enabling environment
for the private sector to do effective business," he said.
"It is up to the
players in the garment industry to take advantage of the free zones facility to
establish factories to meet the market for their products."
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