The recurring theme of remarks made by dignitaries and invited guests at the special forum held in London on the building of a national consensus on a new vision for Ghana centred on the need to transform Ghana into a prosperous nation with the creation of jobs for all.
The forum organised by the National Development Planning Commission in conjunction with the Ghana High Commission provided the opportunity for participants to learn at first hand aspects of Ghana’s Poverty Reduction Strategy 2002-2004 and the basis for long-term planning.
Dr Paa Kwesi Nduom, Minister of Economic Planning and Regional Integration; Mr. Osafo Maafo, Minister of Finance; Dr David Acquah, Governor of the Bank of Ghana; Mr Isaac Osei, Ghana High Commissioner to the UK who graced the occasion, made emphatic presentations on broad policy framework and measures being instituted by government within the context of the President’s vision of a united and prosperous country.
Dr Nduom who led the discussions was of the view that a concerted change in attitude and general behaviour was crucial “if the country is to break from the cycle of poverty into an era of accelerated and sustained growth”.
“To do this, we need to discard our poor work ethics, pervasive over-reliance on foreign products and the chronic dependency syndrome”, he said. Added to this was the need for the country to effect the necessary steps which would foster the development of enterprising individuals with a passion for excellence.
He also reaffirmed government’s commitment to an equitable and balanced national development in a democratic environment emphasising that the priorities for the medium-term will centre on infrastructure development, modernisation of agriculture, enhanced social services and good governance as spelt out in the Ghana Poverty Reduction Strategy (GPRS)
In the long-term, however, according to Dr Nduom, it is envisaged that Ghana could become a leading producer of agro-based products with a capacity to generate capital internally, a hub for information technology in the West Africa sub-region, with expertise in software development as well as data management and processing.
Re-construction of principal trunk roads in the regions, promoting the cultivation of major staples like rice, maize and sugar, streamlining land acquisition procedures and enhancing the capacity of the private sector to add valve to agro-based products, were cited among others by the Economic Planning & Regional Integration Minister as core strategies earmarked under the GPRS to reverse the trend.
On his part, Hon. Osafo Maafo announced that a Monitoring & Evaluation Unit has been established at the office of the President to monitor the implementation of the GPRS while a HIPC tracking system has also been set-up at the Finance Ministry to ensure that HIPC funds are channelled into poverty alleviation projects.
In pursuit of its vision of wealth creation, the Finance Minister said the government would go beyond its traditional role of providing a conducive macro-economic environment for the operation of the private sector to proactively promote specific businesses in which Ghana enjoys a comparative advantage.
On the revamping of the educational sector in Ghana, the Hon. Finance Minister announced that government was developing centres of excellence in each region to stem the drift of the youth in support of its rural regeneration programme. He described private sector participation in the development of the sector as encouraging, particularly at the tertiary level and revealed that government has evolved criteria under which the management of some mission secondary schools would be handed back to some churches.
Hon. Osafo Maafo was however not happy with the tax collection system and lamented that despite pragmatic steps taken by the government to plug the leakages, the system is still riddled with problems.
Dr Paul Acquah, who also is a former official of the International Monetary Fund (I.M.F.), debunked the widely held notion that aid conditionalities were beyond the control of beneficiary countries and emphasised that Ghana could derive immense benefits from World Bank and I.M.F. packages when the country adopts a clear position on the nature of assistance required.
Mr Isaac Osei, hailed the consensus building basis as unprecedented in the history of the country and urged all Ghanaians, irrespective of political stance to make an input to ensure the success of the programme. He was optimistic that the various economic measures introduced since the advent of the NPP government would help create wealth and generate employment for all Ghanaians.
The participants were frank in their contribtutions. They bemoaned the country’s over reliance on western economic models but agreed that the macro-economic stability was a sine qua non for private sector development and economic growth.
They also expressed concern over low wages for some segments of the society, the health and safety of the Ghanaian worker, negative repercussion of the high incidence of armed robbery on the flow of investments, capacity building for workers, and clear numbering of buildings to maximise receipts on property taxes.
Other issues raised by participants include the impact of poor utility services on the investment drive, incorporation of civic education into the curriculum of basic schools, rehabilitation of rail sector in support of government’s mass transport policy and the provision of managerial and financial support for the operations of the small and medium scale businesses.
