Ghana needs to exploit well-planned infrastructure investment opportunities - Construction Chamber

Ghana needs to take advantage of the opportunities that a well-planned infrastructure investment offers to develop a buoyant economy and to compete in the global market.

Mr Emmanuel Martey, the Chairman of the Ghana Chamber of Construction Industry, who made the call, said the growth and development of any economy was directly or indirectly connected with the construction Industry.

He was addressing a forum on the Public-Private Dialogue (PPD) Hub/Platform, which would serve as an institutional mechanism for collaborative development among the built environment professionals to help deal with economic reform management, but also serve as a troubleshooting mechanism.

The PPD will serve the interest of the Public and Private Sector actors within the Construction Industry in the country and to contribute inputs to government policies to accelerate the growth of the industry.

It will also serve as feedback framework to solicit impact of government policies on the Private Sector so as to enable the government better address the needs of the players within the construction industry.

Mr Martey said no meaningful economic development could be achieved on the back of a fragile and ill-equipped construction industry, adding that even at its current un-regulated state, the construction industry in Ghana contributed between 5.7 per cent and 13.7 per cent to the overall Gross Domestic Product (GDP) from 2006 to 2016 respectively.

“Indeed, after the year, 2010 the Construction subsector has contributed the largest share of industry GDP, whilst for instance the share of the mining and quarrying subsector has been on the decline during the same period,” he said.

Mr Martey said government policies and interventions were key to making great impacts on the construction Industry activities, adding that the absence of right policies to promote the development of businesses could have significant negative impact on the livelihood of the players of the respective construction businesses and beneficiaries of the Sector.

He said while in many instances, governments developed policy initiatives for the business community, this was done with little or no consultation with the construction industry players.

This invariably leads to the development and/or implementation of skewed policies which many a time do not result in any tangible benefits to the Construction business community, he said.

“It is upon these backdrops that motivated us believe and perhaps rightly so, that the private sector players must lead the agenda to modernize and regularize the Construction Industry by providing the needed structures and frameworks that will propel development as well as ensure self-cleansing of the private sector players.

“It is expected that the platform should help clean the industry of all unapproved or unqualified Contractors, Surveyors, Engineers, Architects and other service providers in the Built Environment with the implementation of the right policies,” Mr Martey added.