HIPC decision-point Is End of March

Mr Yaw Osafo-Maafo, Minister of Finance, has said Ghana might reach the decision point on the Highly Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) initiative by the end of the first quarter of this year.

"I cannot speak for them, but signals from benefactors indicate that decision point may be reached by the end of March," he said in an interview with the Ghana News Agency in Accra. The government last year decided to opt for HIPC, which is strongly supported by the international community.

Substantial debt relief would be enjoyed by Ghana once the decision point is reached. It is estimated that the range of savings in annual debt service in three years could be between 773 million dollars and 875 million dollars.

Mr Osafo-Maafo, who was speaking after a luncheon with Mr Hernando de Soto, the visiting Peruvian Economist, said government had no intention of privatising the Ghana Commercial Bank under the HIPC.

"What I don't like about it is for the bank to go into private hands, where the operations of the bank would not benefit Ghanaians due to the possible closure of some of the branches." He said the privatisation programme drawn for the bank under the previous government still stood.

On achievements so far on the development of the private sector, the Minister said government declared a "Golden Age of Business" and efforts in the first year concentrated on creating an enabling environment for the private sector.

He said the private sector, whether it was small-scale or large scale, could not operate in an unstable economy. Therefore, government in its first year sought to stabilise the macro-economic situation and that the next step would be to ensure growth for a smooth operation of the private sector.

The Finance Minister said a seminar held at Elmina at the weekend was to enable policy makers be familiar with bottlenecks of the private sector and come out with measures to solve them.

"All the Ministers put aside their prepared speeches and listened to what the private sector operators had to say. This will help us make the right decision and create the enabling environment in which they will operate." On duplication of private sector funds, Mr Osafo-Maafo said government had created the various funds to assist different groups.

For instance the Export Development and Investment Fund (EDIF) is to encourage growth in the export sector while the recently launched African Women's Development Fund seeks solely to assist women in the business sector.

Mr Osafo-Maafo said it is not true that the present government had adopted the same policy as the past government.

Rather, he said, "every policy we adopt is to improve the life of the Ghanaian. Therefore, if the we deem any policy adopted by the previous government to be good for the populace, we shall pursue it."