How CPP Will Bring Ghana’s Economy Back Home

On September 22, 2010, the CPP started the process of

offering the Ghanaian public alternative policies based on our core

values. The Party’s view is that the implementation of our core values

will lead to the transformation of our society. Prior to 1966, the CPP

had a blueprint for the future progress and development of Ghana as a

nation. It was “…a programme of social and economic development based on

the use of science and technology to revolutionalise our agriculture and

industry.” It held a promise of a brighter future based on prosperity for

all Ghanaians, a prosperity that was in part realized until it was abruptly truncated.

Our Party believes that it is important to debate the content

of what is offered by all the political parties in Ghana as policies and

programmes to move our economy forward. In the 4th Republic, Ghanaians

have been stuck with slogans and empty promises designed to win votes. It

is in this regard that the CPP started the “How the CPP will do it” series of

to offer our alternative policies for scrutiny. The CPP believes that

Ghana’s problems have remained largely the same because those who have had the

opportunity to administer the affairs of Ghana in recent years, have not shared

our belief in the CPP core values and hence have been incapable of implementing

them.

We wish to remind Ghanaians that as the vast majority of our

people remain in need of the basics of life, our goal as a Party remains as

follows:

“…to

establish in Ghana a strong and progressive society in which no one will have

any anxiety about the basic means of life, about work, food and shelter; where

poverty and illiteracy no longer exist and disease is brought under control;

and where our educational facilities provide all the children with the best

possibilities for the development of their potentialities.”

This goal inspired the CPP Cabinet in the First Republic to

work with a sense of urgency. It still provides us with enough motivation

to move our country through a path that is very different from that which the

NDC and the NPP have offered so far in the Fourth Republic.

Nana Akufo-Addo, the man elected to lead the NPP to the 2012

elections has been quoted as offering the following as his party’s approach to

the Ghanaian economy:

“The

NPP seeks to create a political economy consistent with basic individual

liberties;

provide substantially equal opportunities to all citizens; tackle

inequalities

but not by a centralised state socialism but by a private

sector

led economy that is allowed to create wealth and the tax revenues

that

the state can accrue from such free entrepreneurships shall be then invested in

the social sectors to create greater opportunities for the

lesser

well offs.”

He added

that, “We must rebuild the confidence of the Ghanaian

entrepreneur.

We must not shy away from picking local winners and supporting

them

deliberately to become regional and continental winners.”

The CPP wishes to inform Ghanaians that this so-called

“…private sector led economy” has been promised by NDC1, NPP1, NDC2 and has not

been realized because these administrations have refused to recognize that

Ghanaians continue to be shortchanged by a market approach to the economy that

has liberalized trade unnecessarily and by the inability to use the purchasing

power and regulatory authority of the state to give our people an advantage in

our own country.

One characteristic of post colonial

economies is the structural balance of payment deficit on trade account that

serves as the source of their dependency and poverty. Their terms of trade make

them net exporters of capital to the developed economies. It is in this regard

that the deficit reduction strategy of the NPP and NDC governments

will neither reverse nor eradicate the structure of trade deficit that is

requisite for development. They treat the symptoms of trade deficit. That is

why we are where we are after NPP/NDC rule in the 4th Republic.

We feel very strongly that it is the blind and hurried want

to put a label of “…centralised state socialism” to create an artificial model

that can be perceived as “different” that is in part preventing our forward

march. No country in the world has advanced and created prosperity for

its people without the state using its central authority to support its

entrepreneurs and creating a favourable domestic environment for investment.

A private sector engine without fuel, body, tyres etc. cannot and will not

move. The use of the central state authority for the benefit of its people

is good! Indeed it is the centralized state that will ensure social

justice.

When the NPP talks about “…picking local winners”, who will

do it? The private sector or the state? It was the state that has

done it successfully in Singapore, Malaysia, South Korea and China. It

was the state that recently saved the automobile industry in the USA not the

private sector.

We are asking Ghanaians to shy away from people who will

offer artificial solutions that have failed as they will remain

campaign-induced empty promises. It is instructive to note that the

“successes” touted by the NPP1 Administration are socialist-oriented National

Health Insurance, Capitation Grant, School Feeding Program, LEAP and the

National Youth Employment Programme.

In contrast, the Convention People’s Party’s objective is to

“bring the economy back home”. This unique signature has been

captured in the official manifestos of the Party since 2004. The

objective is consistent with the Party’s principle of self determination.

It means that the CPP’s economic policy will be felt and as a result, known in

every village, town and municipality in all corners of our country. Our

economic objective is different from what has been offered by the NDC 1 & 2

and NPP 1 Administrations. In practical terms it means that the CPP will

take an aggressive posture to wean the economy away from the IMF, the World

Bank and other international finance institutions. It means that the CPP

will not mortgage the future of our children and our natural resources to our

detriment and the benefit of other nations as we believe the STX Korea

agreement and existing oil and gas agreements will do. It also means that

we will use the right of the state to tax to discourage unbridled importation

of everything under the earth and use the revenues to promote the development

of our own local enterprises. We will raise the funds needed to execute our

programmes by supporting the growth and development of domestic industries and

creating jobs at home.

The foregoing is by the way of

the backdrop that enlightens our development approach. The

contemporary Nkrumaist approach is government intervention

for the development of the productive private sector in the agricultural export

commodity and import substitution sectors to eradicate the structural trade

deficit.

Signed:

Papa Kwesi Nduom

CPP Shadow Cabinet Member, Finance & Economic Planning