[ 2012-05-06 ]

Government To Address Economic Challenges
Trade Minister Hannah Tetteh, has expressed
government’s willingness to provide measures to
address the economic challenges undermining the
development of Ghana.

She listed some of the challenges as high
unemployment rate, rising levels of public debt,
high interest rates, infrastructural deficits,
high public sector wage bills and volatile
international commodity markets and its attendant
effect on foreign exchange earnings.

She said the challenges would be addressed through
policy interventions and programmes outlined in
the Ghana Shared Growth and Development Agenda.

These include sustaining current micro-economic
stability, improving transport infrastructure,
enhancing human development, developing Private
sector competitiveness and improving science and
technology.

Miss Tetteh was speaking at the First Ghana
Economic Forum organised by Business and Financial
Times and supported by Virgin Atlantic in Accra.

The event which was on the theme “Integrating
people, sytems and technologies for sustainable
economic development” brought together about 150
participants.

They included chief executive officers, board
chairmen, directors-general, legal advisors,
entrepreneurs, civil society leaders, and senior
level decision makers in public & private sector
organisations in Ghana and some development
partners.

The forum deliberated on how Ghana could sustain
the macroeconomic gains made in recent times and
the strategy for sustaining the growth trajectory
on the three key pillars of people, systems and
technology deployment.

It also provided a platform for highlighting on
major concerns and key drivers of the economy, the
intersecting players and how the leadership tool
can be better developed to oil the wheels of
development.

Some of the areas discussed included what to do to
unlock Ghana’s human capital in terms of
education, skills development, job creation and
poverty reduction; rethinking the country’s
systems for improved productivity at all levels as
well as utilising technology to drive intermediary
businesses in both public and private sector
organisations.

On the panel to discuss the topics were Ms. Abena
Amoah, Founder & CEO, Baobab Advisors, Dr Joe
Abbey, Executive Director of CEPA, Dr. John
Kwakye, Senior Economist, IEA, Nana Owusu Afari,
President of AGI, Mr Foluso Philips, Founder of
Philips Consulting Group, Nigeria and Mr Kweku
Andoh Awotwi, Chief Executive of Volta River
Authority.

Miss Tetteh said according to Global Competitive
Index (GCI), Ghana continued to exhibit strong
public institutions and governance indicators with
relatively high government efficiency particularly
in regional comparison.

The report indicated that Ghana’s infrastructure
was good by regional standards, especially the
state of its ports which was ranked 66th out of
142 adding that the financial market was also
described as relatively well developed and ranked
61st.

The Trade Minister said, the position of Ghana as
114 out of 142 in the GCI served as a wakeup call
for the government to intensify efforts to improve
the business environment to make Ghana a preferred
destination for investments in the West Africa.

Mrs Edith Dankwa, Executive Director of Business
and Financial Times said over the years, Ghana had
witnessed tremendous growth in its Gross Domestic
Product (GDP) from GH¢ 23 billion in 2007 to GH¢
59 billion in 2011 and had also seen the economy
grow at 14.4 per cent in 2011 which was driven by
oil exports.

She said the fiscal deficits had been falling to
manageable levels, reaching around four per cent
of GDP in 2011 adding that the economy had also
enjoyed single digit inflation since 2010,
currently trending below nine per cent.

Despite all these progress, she said, Ghana still
faced a number of critical challenges that had
held back growth and slowed down the process of
poverty-alleviation and development.

She commended government’s effort in ensuring
sound business environment and urged all
stakeholders to work effectively to drive and
sustain the country's economic growth.

Source - GNA

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