To achieve its vision to develop a vibrant technologically driven and competitive trade and industrial sector, government has been advised to set up a technology and management pool that will feed and grow upcoming industries.
Chairman of the Council of State and Omanhene of Ashanti Juaben, Nana Otuo Siriboe II urged President Nana Akufo-Addo to establish a pool of active or retired Ghanaians “who are knowledgeable in the fields of food industry, accounting, management, human resource from which new industries can tap at a moderate fee to help them grow and be nurtured into full maturity.”
“Ghana has a core of knowledgeable and experienced people and we should make use of them in the development of our industrial sector,” he observed.
This was at the second National Policy Summit which offered a unique opportunity for all stakeholders to critically examine government’s industrial transformation agenda.
The theme for the summit was “ The Industrial Transformation of Ghana.”
The UK BESO example
Ghana can take a cue from the British Expatriate Service Overseas (BESO) in the United Kingdom (UK) where retired knowledgeable and intelligent people are put together and exported overseas to offer technical support and advice to factories in developing countries.
1-District,1-factory
In implementing the 1-District, 1factory agenda there are likely to be difficulties that some of the industries may face in attracting qualified and competent personnel to work for them, especially when they operate from remote areas of the country.
Special reliefs and incentives for industries
Government should institute tariff regimes which will give competitive advantage to locally manufactured products and should ban the importation of products for which Ghana has a competitive advantage, especially some pharmaceutical products.
Application of the appropriate duty rates and avoidance of under-declaration, under-invoicing and misdeclaration at the country’s borders will come as welcome relief to businesses.
Implementation of a rolling regulatory regime review exercise and ensuring strict quality compliance to avoid second-hand products being offered for sale on the Ghanaian market.
Importation of unwholesome products
The Chairman of the Council of State expressed concern over the plethora of imported cooking oils on the market “which is nothing but palm stearin, a by-product of palm oil refining being sold to Ghanaians as refined edible oil.”
“It is of poor quality, therefore cheaper and so the Ghanaian woman would be going in more for the price as against quality and they should be saved from consuming unwholesome food products that are brought into the country,” he charged.
Private sector ready to partner government
National President of the Ghana Chamber of Commerce and Industries, Nana Appiagyei Dankwawoso I says the private sector is prepared to take advantage of the various opportunities that the government policies would offer to businesses.
He hoped that government’s ambition of establishing industrial parks and economic zones in each of the 10 regions to host industries would come with tax exemptions and favourable electricity and water tariff regime that would enhance their competitiveness.
Nana Dankwawoso gave the assurance that as government was fulfilling its mandate by way of policies and creating an enabling macroeconomic environment, the private sector would also fulfil its part so that the nation would realise her ambition of becoming the industrial hub of West Africa.
