Country Fails to Build On HIPC Opportunity

An economist and business magnate, Mr. Ishmael Yamson, has submitted that Ghana has squandered an opportunity to use the Highly Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) facility to ensure economic growth and stability.

He blamed the dire situation on overspending during the 2008 elections.

"We have squandered the take-off opportunity that HIPC offered us and now we don't have HIPC to bail us out; perhaps it would even be difficult to ensure stability," he told participants at Ghana Development Dialogue Series on Wednesday in Accra.

Mr. Yamson, who is also the CEO of Yamson & Associates, was however, optimistic that the National Democratic Congress (NDC) administration has immense opportunities to break with the past to forestall a relapse that would warrant a future development dialogue event. "It is high time we rediscovered ourselves and break from the mediocrity we've locked ourselves," he argued.

The dialogue series was under the theme, "Building Private Sector Competitiveness for Growth, Jobs and Poverty Reduction" and was a collaborative effort among the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), the Ministry of Trade and Industry (MOTI) and the World Bank.

Mr. Yamson, who chaired the event, noted that until we translate our strategies into actions Ghanaians will in few be asking the same questions as to why we have not been able to take off. "Why are we asking the same questions we provided answers to some 20 years ago?" he asked.

He observed that the world economy has changed and this required different perspectives and mindset in addressing the attendant challenges. He was hopeful that amidst the global economic recession, "there are opportunities within the crises. We have to find that space to our advantage," he stressed.

Commenting on the theme, Mr. Yamson noted that the private sector is engulfed with bottlenecks including infrastructure and bureaucracy which make it less competitive in the global world. "Why should it take about 14 days to start a business in the country? It should be possible to that in a day. We've had the Long Room at Tema Harbour since independence! Sometimes, some create the bureaucracy so that they can exploit."

Mr. Ishac Diwan, World Bank, Country Director was unhappy that despite the efforts Ghana has made over the years she is still a "factor driven" economy depending largely on labour and natural resources rather than the brain.

Factor driven economies have "minimal capacity to innovate, do not add much value to the goods and services they produce, have unsophisticated local enterprises with limited managerial and organizational capacity and minimal commercial and technological links to the global links, economy and use low wage, poorly educated, unskilled labour to produce and export unprocessed raw."

In his view Ghana has achieved much in areas such as increased school enrolment in basic education, infrastructure, consolidation of democracy and rule of law and believed that these would pay off shortly.

That notwithstanding, he had some suggestions for the nation. He proposed that Ghana should ensure macro stability, embark on proactive policies and manage her oil properly. "The road ahead is much clearer than the past," he argued.

The MOTI Minister, Ms. Hannah Tetteh, concurred with Mr. Yamson that that it was imperative to "shift from concept to execution" if the country has to make a headway.

She, nonetheless, disclosed that "government cannot use the procurement process to subsidize a weak private sector" and urged the sector to be innovative. 90% of Ghana's private sector consists of Small and Medium Scale Enterprises (SMEs).

She revealed that the National Board for Small Scale Industries (NBSSI) would be revived as a means of injecting new life into that aspect of the private sector.

Ms. Sherry Ayitey, Minister for Environment, Science and Technology, said it is time to strengthen the various research institutions to enable them to contribute meaningfully to the growth and development of industry. Research findings and intellectual property would also be patented so that nation and individual Ghanaians would benefit from royalties.

The defunct Industry, Technology and Science Trade Fairs (INDUTECH), she further disclosed, would also be revived to enable Ghanaians to explore further into appropriate technology.