Awutu-Bawjiase (C/R) Feb.24, GNA - President John Agyekum Kufuor on Tuesday said the President's Special Initiatives (PSIs) were designed to achieve four strategic goals to promote the development of the national economy.
These were to be catalysts for the diversification of the economy to free it from decades of over reliance on the three major primary export products namely, cocoa, timber and gold.
The others were to bring development to the doorsteps of the rural communities to make them part of the mainstream economic activity, generate mass employment and to expand the export revenue base.
President Kufuor announced these when addressing a durbar of chiefs and people after planting a tree to commemorate the inauguration of the first Cassava Starch Processing Factory under the PSI at Awutu-Bawjiase in the Awutu-Efutu-Senya District of the Central Region.
The Ayensu Starch Company (ASCO) is operating the factory to produce industrial starch from cassava for export.
The factory, which cost seven million dollars, began production for export in July last year and has up to date produced 2,000 tonnes of high quality food grade cassava starch, exported about 300 tonnes to Europe and now has confirmed order for 1,000 tonnes.
The Company is named after river Ayensu, which passes through the pilot districts of West Akim, Agona, Gomoa, Awutu-Efutu-Senya and Ga before entering the sea.
In addition to Cassava, other crops under the PSIs are oil palm, sorghum, maize, cotton and cashew. Salt production, Garments and Textiles are also included in the PSIs.
President Kufuor said over the past 100 years, cocoa, timber and gold were exported raw and were always subjected to the vagaries of the international primary commodities market.
He said the painful truth of Ghana's national economic development since independence had been that over 60 per cent of the population in the rural areas were indeed living on the fringes of development. The PSIs, he said were, therefore, meant to help to bring these citizens into the mainstream of the economic agenda.
President Kufuor, who said the PSIs had been designed to generate mass employment, explained the current preference for labour intensive projects like agro-industries.
This he said did not limit or undervalue the importance of modern technology in the implementation of the PSIs.
"Indeed a critical requirement in the selection of any PSI project is the extent to which new technologies can be applied in the selected sector to enhance competitiveness", he said.
President Kufuor said each PSI was designed to have multiplier effect on the economy through forward and backward linkages particularly in respect of developing by-products as well as stimulating the growth of ancillary businesses.
He said the diversification of the PSIs to expand the export revenue base would serve to minimise Ghana's excessive reliance on external aid to finance National Development Expenditure.
On the project, President Kufuor said the support provided by the Government was only intended to empower the private sector to explore investment opportunities in the industrial starch sector as well as other cassava-related product areas.
He advised the farmers to sustain the project with the best farming practices to secure for themselves, their families and Ghana's economy a prosperous future.
"Your success with the PSI in cassava is being replicated by other farmers, who are embarking on other crops under the PSIs in other parts of the country. You deserve to be proud of yourselves", he said. Mr Andrew Quayson, Managing Director of ASCO, said the company now had about 5,668 hectares of high-yielding cassava under cultivation by 10,000 farmers, who belong to a registered association - Ayensu Cassava Farmers Association (ACFA).
He said the company's priority now was to sort out the problems of harvesting and evacuating roots from the many farms scattered across their operational areas.
Mr Quayson said another major challenge was to meet the demand of the European customers for an 850-kilogram bag pack instead of their current 25- kilogram pack.
The high-grade industrial starch the factory produces are for use in paper, textile, food, pharmaceutical, oil drilling and petrochemical industries.
Two by-products, pulp and juice are used as cattle fodder and fertiliser.
