Revive struggling factories before one-district, one-factory – ICU to gov’t

The Industrial and Commercial Workers Union (ICU) wants the Akufo-Addo government to revitalise existing factories before rolling out the one-district-one-factory policy.

General Secretary of the Union, Solomon Kotei, said there are existing factories in the country which are struggling to find their feed, which he is of the view should be given some financial injection to be competitive to meet growing demands.

“If there are existing factories which have not actually found their feet, and they are struggling to survive, are we going to have reinjection of some investments into these businesses or whiles they are there struggling and not getting their way into the market then we go and open new ones just to fulfill manifestos,” he said.

He said the Union in the coming months would be engaging the Ministry of Trade and Industry on the issue. The Akufo-Addo government hopes to use the one-district, one-factory; a key campaign promise, as one of the means to transform the country’s economy. It is expected to be captured in this year’s budget to be presented to parliament next month.

The ICU again is urging government to stick to its decision to review the corporate tax from 35 to 25 percent to restore the confidence of businesses.

“Fortunately, the present government in its campaign said it was going to reduce corporate tax from 35 to 25. We are giving them some time to settle down and then we will push to find out whether those things are reality or rhetoric’s of the campaign time,” Mr Kotei said.

Meanwhile, the ICU has organised its regional delegate conference to discuss the effectiveness of the Union for the next four years.

Discussions focused on creating synergies between employers and employees to promote effective working environment..