GIPC to improve investor perception by 50%

The Ghana Investment Promotion Centre (GIPC) is confident that it will be able to improve by at least 50% of investor confidence in its operations for this year. Chief Executive Robert Ahomka Lindsay said this when he met financial journalists in Accra to address a number of issues including perceptions Centre?s operations are geared towards frustrating investors.

He announced the establishment of a business development division to among others help existing businesses to understand the operations of the Centre, and how they can compliment each other.

According to Mr. Ahomka-Lindsay, more than ninety percent of businesses are in the hands of Ghanaians, and the Centre would be helping them to understand the legislations regarding business operations in the country.

He also mentioned that the Centre will this year ensure that existing laws in the statutory books are enforced to create a level playing field for all businesses. He was however unhappy with the reluctance of some business operators to submit inputs to the new investment law being worked on. He said only one company has so far made an input.

The GIPC Boss said the Centre seeks to have an interactive debate with business groups to ensure that consumers? rights are protected in order to safeguard concerns raised against most businesses regarding the unwholesomeness of their final products. He added that it is important for people to understand that the consumer interest should override a strong desire to make profit.

Mr. Ahomka-Lindsay also said the GIPC hopes to improve the share of total Foreign Direct Inflows and stocks to West Africa by 4.0%.

?We expect Ghana to be in the top 10 in the overall competitiveness ranking in Africa and in the top 80 of the overall competitiveness ranking in the world.?

He also stated that they expect the value of FDI inflows for this year to increase to Gh?150 million and Gh?1.3 billion of capital re-investment.

Touching on the Centre?s operational results as detailed in their quarterly report he said 305 projects were registered in 2007 indicating a 28% increase. The FDI components for 2007 was Gh?5.18bn (US$5.56BN) and a local currency component of Gh?92.93 million (US $ 99.9million). In 2006 the FDI component of the registered projects was Gh?2.15bn (US $ 2.31) with local component of Gh?46.86 million (US$ 50.38).

The expected employment to be generated from the 305 projects registered in 2007 is 25,367 and this is almost double that of the same period in 2006, when 12,044 jobs were expected to be generated.