Dynamic government-private sector partnership needed, Abeasi

Accra (Greater Accra), 25 Jan '99 - Mr Kwasi Abeasi, Director-General of the Private Enterprise Foundation (PEF), today said there is the need for a dynamic partnership between the government and the private sector for accelerated and sustainable development. He said the private sector has been recognised as the engine of growth because private capital is an indispensable ingredient in the development equation not only as a means of accelerating growth but as a sustainable and efficient source of investment. Mr Abeasi was presenting a paper on: "The new role of the private sector in Ghana's developmental process towards the next millennium", at the eighth in the series of the "Speaker's Forum" in Accra. Mr Abeasi told the forum that Ghana, like most African countries, adopted a public-sector-led development strategy after independence to address her industrialisation requirements in an effort to advance the socio- economic conditions of her people.

"Most of these governments, however, sought to confront this challenge single-handedly, neglecting the potential of the private sector as an agent of and a partner for economic change", he said He said the past unimpressive performance of the private sector can be attributed to the fact that successive governments in almost all African countries, have always looked at the sector more as a parasite than a partner, sometimes even as an opposition to the government of the day.

Mr Abeasi said for the private sector to become the engine of the country's economic growth both the local private sector and the multi- national private sector should be nurtured, encouraged and supported. He said there is the need, therefore, to take the necessary measures to facilitate the required domestic and international private sector investment to achieve the country's growth and developmental aspirations.

"This is particularly important if Ghana is to succeed in attracting a greater share of international private investment flows, given that only a small percentage of these flows currently come to Africa." Giving a background to the formation of PEF as an apex body for the various associations of the private sector, Mr Abeasi said the sector's scene was covered by a proliferation of associations, some of which sometimes even worked at cross-purposes.

He said the situation could not engender efficiency in the development and nurturing of the private sector and there was, therefore, the need to bring all these groups together. The design, he said, proved acceptable to all parties and with the sponsorship of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and encouragement of the government, PEF was established in January, 1994 and started operation a year later.

The foundation has as its constituent members the Association of Ghana Industries (AGI), Ghana National Chamber of Commerce, Ghana Employers' Association (GEA), Federation of Associations of Ghanaian Exporters and Ghana Association of Bankers (GAB).