Ghanaian entrepreneurs need more development aid - Dutch MP

From Hannah Asomaning, GNA Special Correspondent, Soesterberg, The Netherlands

Soesterberg, Netherlands, May 14, GNA - Mr Arend Jan Boekestijn, a Dutch MP, on Monday said that aid going to Africa should be channeled to the private sector.

He explained that more financial support should be given to private people who wanted to set up factories or businesses, stressing that there was the need to increase funds to the private sector instead of giving it to government.

Mr Boekestijn, who is a member of the Dutch Liberal Party (VVD) said: "Ghana, for instance produces cocoa but does not have enough factories and sufficient capacity to produce chocolate bars which adds the real value to the crop."

He was addressing Members of the Third Chamber, a Netherlands-based organization that advocates strengthened political support for international cooperation and sustainable development. The Dutch MP was speaking on the topic: "Towards a Liberal Development Cooperation Policy."

He explained that there was more value in producing chocolate than just cultivating cocoa to be sold to a country that added value to the crop, and said the country that added value to the crop gained more than the one who produced the crop.

Mr Boekestijn also said there was a need for genuine trade reforms in the European Union (EU), adding that it should be ready to discuss subsides with Africa and give less protection to the trade policies in the EU.

He urged African countries to establish real regional integration instead of the diverse economic situations that pertain in the different countries.

Mr Boekestijn said an established African Union with no trade barriers could put Africa in a position to facilitate reforms in the EU trade policy.

There is the need to change EU trade policies towards Africa and that, there was also the need to link development in Africa to institutional changes and strengthen the existing institutions that were supposed to facilitate change, he said. Mr Boekestijn suggested that the EU changed its tariff regime to suit Africa.