Broaden Democratic Governance

Accra, Sept. 12, GNA -- Dr. Kwabena Anaman, Head of Economics Centre, Institute of Economic Affairs on Monday called for broadening of democratic governance and the country's export base as a means to facilitate economic growth.

Speaking at a seminar on determinants of economic growth, Dr Anaman said studies of both long-run and short-run growth functions had indicated a strong correlation between political stability and economic growth.

He, therefore, stressed the need to maintain the current political stability and enhance the participation of a large section of society in the country's governance to promote growth.

The seminar was organized by the Institute of Economic Affairs to ginger debate on how to accelerate the country's growth. As a first step in deepening and broadening democratic governance, Dr Anama called for financing of political parties to allow the emergence of viable third parties to break the duopoly of NPP and NDC, which had been largely successful due to incumbency factor.

This, he said, was necessary to avoid what he termed 'the Pakistani Syndrome' in Ghana where the military inserted itself as the third force when the two main parties engage in high-level quarreling. Dr Anama said it was equally important that decentralization process was moved at a faster rate with the creation of town and village councils for population sizes greater than 10,000 to allow for direct democracy and increased mobilization of local labour for development projects.

In addition, the people should directly elect District Chief Executives for a fixed term period to make them more accountable to the people.

Touching on exports, Dr Anaman stressed the need to break the reliance on cocoa, gold and timber through the diversification of exports. He urged government to also invest in labour intensive public works to accelerate economic growth and reduce the high unemployment among the youth. On Energy, Dr Anaman said Government would be unable to obtain the envisaged GDP growth rate target of six per cent if the current energy shortages persist. He called for the establishment of a multi-sectoral working group to look at the energy crisis and forge a long-term plan for the country, saying that energy was a critical ingredient for investors' decision.