President Kufuor calls for genuine partnership.

Kumasi, Aug. 9, GNA- President John Agyekum Kufuor on Saturday said that without genuine partnership between government, employers and labour, the radical economic transformation the country aims at achieving could be illusive.

"No one side alone can do it if we are to succeed", he said, adding that, it was for this reason that there should be constant dialogue among the three partners.

President Kufuor was addressing the opening ceremony of the Seventh Quadrennial Conference of the Industrial and Commercial Workers Union (ICU) at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) in Kumasi.

The three-day conference has the theme "Setting standards to face the challenges of labour in the new Millennium, the ICU Vision". President Kufuor, however, observed that such partnership could only function within the parameters of peace and said it was important that "we agree to co-operate in peace".

He said his government has demonstrated willingness to listen and dialogue and the challenge was for all to put their shoulders to the wheel to turn the economy around.

"We must play our roles to make Ghana an attractive investment destination", the President said, pointing out that, the country should generate confidence and assurance in the body politic not just to win foreign and local investors.

Touching on the proposed sale of government shares in the Ghana Commercial Bank (GCB), President Kufuor said he appreciated the critical role the Bank plays in the national economy.

He said government wants to strategically position the Bank to raise its capital for it to make big profit.

The President said last year for example, the Ghana Cocoa Board (COCOBOD) raised 400 million dollars for cocoa purchases and this came mostly from the International Banks, saying, "you could imagine the huge profits that went to those Banks".

This year, COCOBOD would be raising 650 million dollars and once again, the foreign banks would be taking the centre stage and take away big profits.

President Kufuor cautioned that in doing modern business there should not be discrimination against foreign capital noting that the important thing was to put in place regulations to ensure that "it does not come to abuse".

Mr Napoleon D.K. Kpoh, General Secretary of the ICU, noted with satisfaction constructive enterprises under the Presidential Special Initiative (PSI).

"We believe that the mutual roles played by government representatives and our Union leadership in dealing with labour related issues in enterprises under PSI will lead to the creation of a new work culture and remuneration tradition that will benefit our members and country as a whole".

"I will therefore congratulate President Kufuor on this new relationship and hope that workers interests will continue to be taken into account when designing national economic and investment policies so that the nation will continue to enjoy industrial harmony and productivity gains".

Mr Kpoh asked the Union to take a journey back into the last 12 years and re-examine its policy directions to enable it redesign its policies and strategies for the future. The ICU General Secretary appealed for the President's personal intervention to get unpaid salaries and agreed severance award settled for employees of the Bonsa Tyre Company Limited, Bolgatanga Meat Factory, Tropical Glass Company and the Ghana Food Distribution Corporation (GFDC) that had been outstanding since the latter part of 1980's.

Mr Kwasi Adu-Amankwaa, Secretary-General of the TUC, spoke of the need for labour to maintain a strong, united and impregnable front to help prevent the onslaught on labour rights. He said the TUC would mobilise the best of its ability to prevent government from selling its shares in the GBC, pointing out that, if care was not taken "we could become workers for foreign owners". There were fraternal greetings from labour unions both in Africa and Europe. 09 Aug. 2003