Government would publish Senchi report – Veep

Vice President Kwesi Amissah-Arthur has announced that government would make available the full report of the Senchi Forum to the public by next week.

He said under the report, there were 22 consensuses of specific policies to deal with the long-term sources of financing from the private sector.

Mr. Amissah-Arthur made the revelation when a Swiss Business delegation called on him at the Flagstaff House.

The Swiss Business delegation is in the country to explore business opportunities and to network with their Ghanaian counterparts.

Mr. Amissah-Arthur also noted that President John Dramani Mahama has assured to join in the presentation of the full record of the Senchi discussion after which the National Development Planning Commission (NDPC) would take it up, as reflecting the agreements that would go into the Ghana Shared Growth and Development Agenda (GSGDA).

He said a couple of years ago, Ghana graduated from a Least Developed Country (LDC) to a Lower Middle Income Country, and as a result, does not qualify for the kind of financing it used to get from donor and multilateral agencies.

He said previously, when the country was a LDC, they were able to borrow soft loans from the World Bank (WB) and the African Development Bank (ADB).

Mr. Amissah-Arthur further stated that since the country was now dealing with the markets, it has to develop the right kind of discipline that encourages growth rather than rely on donor financing.

He noted that the country has major constraints with energy generation, as a result of irregular gas supply from the West African Gas Pipeline to power its new thermal plants.

He expressed the hope that with the coming of Ghana Gas, it would substitute for the high cost of crude oil that is used to generate energy and, therefore, bring down the cost of generating electricity.

Marie-Gabrielle Ineichen-Fleisch, Leader of the Swiss Business delegation, stated that Ghana and Switzerland have strong bilateral relations, which goes back many years.

She said Ghana is one of the eight priority countries of Switzerland and that the visit would help improve the economic relations between the two nations.

She said the business delegation is in Ghana to discover opportunities and network with Ghanaian businesses.