Investors' Council identifies 18 areas...

affecting investment in Ghana

The Ghana Investors' Advisory Council (GIAC) Chaired by President John Agyekum Kufuor on Friday, identified 18 areas affecting investments in the country for action by November this year.

The issues were land regulatory reforms, mining and labour laws and safety and security. Others were infrastructure especially energy, telecommunications, Information Technology (IT), financial service and public sector sensitivity to the private sector.

The rest were restoring the mining sector to be competitive, re-orienting the economy from commodity and aid-dependency to a more diversified one and the promotion of partnership between government, private sector, industry and labour. This was contained in a communiqu? issued and read by Mr Ken Ofori-Atta, Chief Executive Officer of the Databank at the end of the first meeting of the Council in Accra.

It said the Minister of Private Sector and the Office of the President would co-ordinate with the various ministries to ensure implementation and resolution of the issues, adding that, the Council would meet in November to evaluate the action taken and recommendations made. The council agreed to appeal to Ghana's missions outside to promote the country as an investment destination and urged the President to travel with private sector operators on his future trips abroad.

The Council, which was inaugurated before the meeting is a small high level and informal group comprising 26 top-level executives of foreign and Ghanaian businesses such as CMS Energy Company, Ecobank, Heineken, Ashanti Goldfields as well as individuals from the private sector, is to foster more understanding between the government and companies driving investments.

The Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Mr Horst Kohler who attended the meeting and the World Bank Managing Director, Mr James Wolfensen mooted the idea when they met President Kufuor in Bamako, Mali last year. The Council would convene once or twice a year for the next two years.