Rely on local resources - GCPP

The leader of the Great Consolidated Popular Party (GCPP), Mr Dan Lartey, has said the government should have mobilised available local resources to address the country's development problems instead of opting for the Heavily Indebted Poor Country (HIPC) Initiative . "

Who said Ghana's debts are so huge as to be unheard of in the world; The bigger your debt, the greater effort you make to dispose of and not to turn to HIPC," he said.

Mr Lartey was speaking at the special practitioners forum to herald Management Day of the School of Administration , University of Ghana, Legon in Accra on Tuesday. His topic was "Domestication and the economic and social development of the Ghana". He described the initiative as a neo-colonial design aimed at dominating the affairs of the government in the foreseeable future.

The leader of the GCPP said the country is endowed with fabulous resources and human talents which should have been harnessed by the government to create wealth internally instead of relying on foreign hand-outs such as the HIPC initiative.

He explained that the party's concept of domestication hinges on self-reliance in which the country should harness islands of affluence amidst the general poverty situation to move it forward. ' Domestication is the art of administering affairs of a nation, using its natural and human resources to improve the economy as well as the material conditions of the people. " he said.

Mr Lartey said the over-dependence of the country on the advanced countries for her support and sustenance would reduce her to a permanent beggar nation, which does not augur well for her future development.

The leader of GCPP further explained that the concept of domestication will reverse the trends of neo-colonialism in which the political and economic policies and programmes are directed from outside . "

Domestication stands to correct the imbalance in the society created by neo-colonialism, now HIPC, and establish an effective social and economic order," Mr Lartey said. He described as ironical the speed at which leading functionaries of the British Government " descended heavily on President Kufuor to persuade him to embrace the HIPC initiative and subsequently change his mind about the GCPP's of Domestication concept," Mr Lartey said the vast majority of the people have kicked against the initiative, which he claimed would further impoverish them and stunt their living conditions.