‘State has no business doing business’ assertion a fallacy – Dr Aidoo

Ghana’s former Ambassador to the Netherlands, Dr Tony Aidoo has described the assertion that the ‘state has no business doing business’ as a fallacy.

According to him, if the nation is capable of managing its affairs, then it is capable of engaging in business to make profits, so it stops depending on others for everything.

“The state has business to do business because the state is responsible for Ghana’s education, responsible for health, sanitation, etc. If the state can manage these even though not at appreciable levels, the state can do business also," he said.

“What that requires is that the very method of private capital can also be adopted by the state for the management of state enterprises where leaders of state enterprises are paid by results and not on a guaranteed tenure and salaries," he added.

Speaking on the topic ‘Understanding and Rebuilding Ghana’s Political Leadership’, Dr Aidoo made reference to countries such as China that got into active business to build its economy.

“China today is growing but China’s highest level of economic growth was reached at a period when China was relatively isolated from the capitalist world,” he said.

Dr Tony Aidoo was speaking at the Progressive Intellectuals first National Conference on ‘Rethinking Political Leadership in Ghana’.