Bolgatanga (Upper East) -- Well endowed and well-to-do citizens of the three northern regions resident elsewhere have been urged to return to their home regions and invest there to facilitate development.
Dr Paa Kwesi Nduom, Minister of Regional Coorperation and Integration, made the call during an interaction with the press. He is on a two-day tour of the region to educate the public on policies, programmes and achievements of his ministry.
He pointed out that the three northern regions, like other parts of the country, were richly endowed with both material and human resources, which could be harnessed for development as being done in southern Ghana.
Dr Nduom, who is also the chairman of the National Development Planning Commission (NDPC), said the thrust of the government’s economic policy is the “Ghana Poverty Reduction Strategy (2002-2004) with the target of increasing the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) per capital to $1000 within the next five years.
He noted that 50 years after independence, Ghana’s GDP is still less than $400 while countries such as Cote d’Ivoire, Mauritius, Botswana and Gabon with less material resources had GDPs ranging between $700 to $4,000.
He said it was to accelerate Ghana’s development and reverse that negative trend that the government decided to go HIPC by which Ghana’s debts had been written off and benefit accruing diverted to poverty alleviation strategies and wealth creation.
To achieve that goal, he said, government had set up Social Emergency Fund (SEF) and Special Investment Fund (SIF), among many others, with priority areas as infrastructure, especially schools, roads, railways, energy and communications technology.
Other priority areas are rural development based on modernized agriculture, enhanced social services, good governance and private sector development. During the open forum the Minister admitted that the country could not achieve a significant GDP growth rate if it failed to pursue a vigorous industrialisation programme but indicated that, that was embedded in its policy to add value to its agricultural produce through agro-processing.
On equity in the distribution of the HIPC funds, Dr Nduom explained that it was being done fairly and gave the assurance that no area would be neglected on political, geographical, religious or social grounds.
