Work on a National Export Strategy and National Export Development Programme has been completed and implementation would commence after cabinet approval.
The strategy seeks to consolidate the country’s major export markets in Europe and also increase the share of the African markets, especially within countries in the Economic Community of West African States.
“The Strategy also seeks to intensify the production of non-traditional export products across the country such that each district will have at least one major export product,” Ms Hannah Tetteh, Minister of Trade and Industry told journalists on Thursday.
Ms Tetteh, who was speaking at the Meet the Press series in Accra, said a private sector-led initiative conceived and coordinated by the Ministry to develop a Yam Development strategy for the country had begun.
She said the initiative being supported by the International Trade Centre in Geneva and the International Institute for Tropical Agriculture has as its objective to identify strategic high-end mainstream international markets for the country’s yam in the fresh and processed forms, and to restructure and enhance the supply chain to service these markets competitively.
The Minister said government is also working to establish Ghana Trade Centres in selected countries with major market potential to promote exports.
These Trade Centres, she said, would be private sector driven and self-sustaining so as to reduce the burden on government to maintain trade offices overseas.
There are plans to set up 28 centres over a five-year period of which four will be established in Dubai, Turkey, Sierra Leone and Equatorial Guinea by the end of the first quarter of 2013.
“The Ghana Trade Centres will become the hubs around which the sourcing for buyers for made-in-Ghana goods will take place,” Ms Tetteh said.
She said the centres would also provide market intelligence and commercial representation services to Ghanaian exporters and on behalf of the trade promotion institutions.
Ms Tetteh said government is participating fully in multilateral and regional trade negotiations as well as pursuing bilateral trade arrangements with strategic individual partner countries in order to take advantage of opportunities in key strategic markets, foster business cooperation and technology transfer.
She cited countries such as Turkey, South Africa and the United States as places Ghana is in discussions with to implement bilateral trade and investment agreements.
“The processes outlined...are intended to improve Ghana’s market opportunities and support Ghana’s export development whilst applying disciplines in national regulations that support competitive domestic production to help develop Ghana’s agricultural, industrial and services sectors to compete in global markets,” Ms Tetteh said.
Copyright © 1994 - 2024 GhanaWeb. All rights reserved.
