Gri Newsreel 08-02-99

Kumasi (Ashanti Region) 8 Feb.

As from Wednesday, February 10 the main Kejetia Lorry Park in Kumasi, will be closed down for rehabilitation under the Ghana-

Government/World Bank funded Urban Transport Project as Meanwhile the Ashanti Regional Secretariat of the Ghana Private Road Transport Union

(GPRTU) is making efforts to relocate operations at the park. In an interview in Kumasi after an emergency meeting with

officials of the branches and locals of the union operating at the park , Mr Issah M. Khaleepah, Senior

Industrial Relations Officer, expressed his appreciation to the Government for the project and pledged the support of the

GPRTU to ensure its early completion.

He said drivers who fail to pay their daily income tax during the period of the project would be prosecuted.

A source at the Kumasi Metropolitan Authority (KMA), said the work is expected to be completed within 10 months.

Accra (Greater Accra) 8 Feb.

The first lady, Nana Konadu Agyeman Rawlings, has left Accra to address a forum of the United Nations Population

Fund in the Hague, Netherlands.

A statement issued in Accra yesterday, said the forum will assess the progress and constraints faced by countries in the

implementation of the programme of action of the 1994 International Conference on Population and Development.

The one week-forum will also discuss issues on reproductive health, the empowerment of women and the inter-relationship between

population and sustainable development.

Nana Konadu who is also the President of the 31^st December Women's Movement, was accompanied by Mrs Cecelia Johnson, Deputy

Minister of Local Government, Mrs Esther Apewokin, Director Policy Studies and Training, National Population Council and Mrs Patience Doamekpor of

the United Nations Fund for Population Activities.

Accra (Greater Accra), 8 Feb

The Reform Movement (RM) has called for a complete overhaul of the agricultural sector to make way for the adoption of

modern production, distribution and marketing practices.

In a 12-point resolution adopted at the end of their two-day congress at the University of Ghana, Legon last Friday, the RM

said there is the need to integrate agriculture with industry by the adoption of polices that will lead to the manufacturing of

implements to support the agricultural base as well as the production of materials to feed industry.

The RM asked that the youth should be encouraged to adopt agriculture as a sustainable livelihood, especially, in cash

crops for export, and the development of rural transportation to make access between the farm gate and the market easier.

Sustained improvement and innovation in the payment system for agricultural produce through the requisite bank

support system as well as Central and local government encouragement of the private sector to enter agriculture.

The resolution called for the control of government expenditure by self-imposed discipline on financial operation

through the reduction, elimination of waste and theft. The practice of patronage payments which inflate contracts and

procurement prices must cease.

The RM said there must be an improved mobilisation and management mechanism by spreading the tax net, lowering

direct taxation rates, and improving income tax systems. Attention must be directed to developing and implementing an

efficient collection system for VAT while public education of it is sustained.

A policy of selective incentives for industry and agriculture, to enhance Ghana's competitiveness on the world market.

There must be a vigorous investment drive in human resources for which a percentage of the district assembly common fund

must be set aside.

The RM welcomed relations between government and international financial organisations but described as insensitive,

the cuts in expenditure for health and education dictated by the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund.

It said the over-emphasis of the IMF on macro-economic adjustment often at the expense of promoting productive activity

in agriculture and industry is not helpful to the national cause.

The resolution said the RM is committed to deepening its analysis of the Ghanaian economy through discussions and

consultations with communities, NGOs, trade unions and all stakeholders with a view to finding a lasting solution to them.

Kumasi (Ashanti Region) 8 Jan.

The Rev. Father Stephen Osei-Duah, Vicar General of the Diocese of Kumasi, has expressed concern about the "absence

of Christ" in Ghana's Vision 2020. He said the third millennium has been associated with slogans on food, health, water and indeed all aspects of

human life for the year 2000.

''Nowhere have I heard the slogan Christ for all by the year 2000,'' Fr Osei-Duah, told a forum of Grand Knights, Noble Ladies,

Regional Grand Knights and the Noble Ladies of the Knights and Ladies of Marshall, a Catholic fraternal society, in Kumasi on Saturday.

The forum, on the theme ''Our Father in heaven, the year of Charity,'' was aimed at preparing officers of the fraternity for their role in

The celebration of the third millennium and enhancing their efficiency as representatives of the Supreme Knight and the Grand Court.

He said people forget that it is God that makes ''all these aspects of life possible and holds them together. This is indeed a sad

picture of the third millennium and poses great challenges to us as Christians."

He pointed out that recent technological changes, particularly the breakthrough in genetic engineering which holds great promises

for humanity in the third millennium, is making human life less burdensome and more comfortable.

He said in the United States, Germany and Japan, for instance, where high technology has resulted in the increased material wealth of

the average citizen, people tend to forget God, or at best, they keep him at a distance and even question His relevance in their lives.

''The glorification of increased high technological achievements without recourse to God, the primary creator and origin of all wisdom

should remind us of the Tower of Babel and its consequences''.

He pointed out that drug abuse, alcoholism, pornography and sexual promiscuity are all hedonistic vehicles for heinous crimes that

tend to destroy life and human existence at large.

Accra (Greater Accra) 8 Feb.

Ghana will next week host two important workshops on agrometeorology to create increased awareness on how matters

of the weather and climate affect day-to-day activities, especially food production. From Monday, February 15, she will host an international

workshop on Agrometeorology to be followed on February 18 by the 12^th Session of the Commission for Agrometeorology. Mr John Mahama, Minister of

Communications, who announced this at a news conference in Accra today noted that even though meteorology plays a vital role in agriculture, it does

not receive the required attention. "It is for this reason that the government decided to host these important events to benefit from the information and

knowledge that will come out of them". Ghana is the first country in Africa to host the conference which is held every four years.

The three-day workshop being organised jointly with the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) will be attended by senior experts

from the international community. WMO, which has 185 member states, is the supreme body that determines the general policy for weather, climate,

operational hydrology and related sciences.

The workshop on the theme: "Agrometeorology in the 21st Century," will assess future application needs of the subject and make recommendations

for future action and state-of-the-art techniques and methods of agrometeorological data. Mr Mahama said the nine-day 12th Session of the Commission

for Agrometeorology will be attended by 200 delegates from 150 countries.

The Session on the theme: "Weather, Climate and Agriculture" will draw a programme for the Commission for 1999 to 2002. It will discuss

issues such as farming practices, forestry, livestock management and land use. Economic impacts of flooding, surges resulting in inundation,

especially of coastal locations, and methods of assessing these will be adequately deliberated on.