Ministry of Trade and UNIDO agree to complete projects

Government and the United Nations Industrial Development Organisation (UNIDO) on Thursday agreed to finalise, adopt and implement Ghana's Integrated Industrial Policy which falls under key on-going projects and programmes.

A communiqu? signed by Dr Kofi Konadu Apraku, Minister of Trade and Industry, and Carlos Magarinos, Director-General of UNIDO in Accra, said the two bodies also agreed to review the second edition of Ghana's industrial and trade performance.

The communiqu? was signed at the end of a two-day visit of Magarinos, who was in the country as a follow up mission to assess the implementation of UNIDO-funded projects and programmes under the Government of Ghana (GOG) and UNIDO Integrated Programmes (IP).

UNIDO's interests in Ghana are to help improve the industrial sector and promote cleaner production practices. In furtherance of this, the communiqu? said the two parties also agreed to collaborate to improve the quality of food production, support private sector associations and rural enterprise development projects and build the capacity of the Ghana Investment Promotion Centre and the Free Zones Board.

The communiqu? said Ghana and the UNIDO further agreed to explore new opportunities for collaboration to expand textile/garment training centre with particular reference to a textile-training unit to support the President's Special Initiative.

The collaboration would also involve Agricultural Machinery Industrial System Project and the establishment of a cleaner production centre with particular focus on technology transfer to reduce the level of industrial pollution.

The communiqu? said the implementation of the agreements would be guided by the principles of ownership of programmes and projects by key stakeholders in the private sector and government.

Other principles would be to generate employment through investment promotion and partnership particularly for the development of small and medium industries. "The government is by this enjoined to exhibit commitment to invest resources in the programmes developed and to mobilise additional resources from donors," the communiqu? said.