Business24 Editorial: GIPC’s plan to spread out FDIs plausible and timely

Foreign investors wanting a conducive and ready space to invest their monies tend to look out for prime areas to set up a business as has been the practice over the years. They cannot be faulted because, as business people, they would want see their investments yield the needed returns and impact.

The desire for prime areas to do business has seen an over-concentration of foreign-owned projects in specific regions or places that are deemed to be ripe for business whilst other parts of the country cry for economic life.

The state investment promoter, GIPC, having identified the disparity, has set out to undertake an extensive profiling of opportunities in regions or areas that have recorded very low numbers of foreign investments.

Serving as a guide to potential investors, the profiling exercise will facilitate a fairer distribution of economic activities nationwide, which will in turn open up other parts of the country for growth.

Evidently, FDI projects abound in three regions namely Greater Accra, Ashanti and Western but same cannot be said of the remaining 13 regions.

We see this move from the GIPC to be very plausible and timely because it will promote wealth sharing and churn out the needed jobs for the youth in these parts of the country.

The socio-economic benefits of spreading foreign investments could be seen in a drastic decline in rural urban migration with reduced pressure on the capital towns or towns that are flooded with most of these investments.

We see this to be a smart intervention from the GIPC. An even space for trade and job creation is one means by which the nation can fast-track its recovery from the harm of the pandemic.

This is indeed a step in the right direction.