Government has designed policy reforms to make Ghana the most business-friendly nation in Africa to accelerate socio-economic development and prosperity for all.
To this end, government had outlined a 10-point agenda to transform the industrial sector of the national economy that would create job opportunities for the teeming unemployed youth and ensure prosperity for all Ghanaians.
Addressing stakeholders at the opening of the Second Edition of the National Policy Summit, in Accra, on Monday, President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, mentioned the industrial agenda which were anchored on the following areas: building competitive businesses of existing local industries by facilitating access to medium and long term financing at low interest rate and implementing the One District, One Factory initiative designed to bring industrialisation to the doorsteps of the people.
The summit, organised by the Ministry of Information which featured the Ministry of Trade and Industry, is on the theme: ‘‘The Industrial Transformation of Ghana’’.
The platform was created to inform Ghanaians on government strategies to revamp the economy for sustained growth and national prosperity.
The event brought together captains of industry, members of Parliament, the diplomatic community, entrepreneurs, traditional rulers, youth groups and a cross section of Ghanaians.
President Akufo-Addo enumerated other initiatives including introduction of strategic anchor industrial initiatives to create new growth poles for the Ghanaian economy, establishment of industrial parks and special economic zones in at least one of the ten regions (One Region, One Park) and promoting small and medium-scale enterprise development.
Others are; establishment of an industrial sub-contracting expo that would link a certain need of supply chain of large-scale enterprises, promote export diversification with particular emphasis on non-traditional exports, improve domestic retail trade and promote domestically manufactured goods (i.e Made in Ghana goods)
The rest are; enhancing the business enabling environment to regulate businesses to perform and promote public-private sector dialogue as institutionalise process for consultation.
He said the government’s agenda for economic growth and job creation was underpinned by programme of rapid and aggressive industrialisation and value addition, especially in agro-processing and vibrant manufacturing.
The President observed that these policy initiatives and programmes would be complemented by other policy interventions across government to leverage optimal support for the development of the private sector.
He said these policy initiatives had been crafted after extensive consultations and engagements with the private sector and others players and, thus solicited the unflinching support of all Ghanaians, particularly the private sector to ensure a successful implementation.
He assured the business community and all stakeholders of his personal commitment to ensure the successful implementation of the initiatives that would be one of the significant contributions of his government to the transformation of the national economy.
President Akufo-Addo noted that these policy frameworks were in line with the New Patriotic Party’s campaign promises made during the electioneering in 2016 that would help businesses to expand and create jobs and promote the growth of entrepreneurship particularly the youth.
He explained: ‘‘It is against this background that in the 2017 Asempa Budget we introduced a number of far reaching reforms designed to reduce the cost of doing business for the private sector and shift government economic policy away from a fixation of taxation to emphasis on production’’.
Amongst other measures, he said, was the announcement of tax-cuts amounting to over one billion cedis in this year’s budget, which was read to Parliament by the Finance Minister in March.
