Kufuor asks workers not to rush his gov’t on benefit
FAO cautions delegates about food shortage
Kufuor asks workers not to rush his gov’t
on benefit
Tamale (Northern Region) 14 November 2001 - President J.A. Kufuor on Tuesday said it was unfair for workers to give the New Patriotic Party (NPP) government an ultimatum to restore the End-of-Service Benefit (ESB) since it did not abolish it.
"I don't want to believe that there is an ulterior motive behind those agitations. If there is an ulterior motive, I want to assure those people that this government will not budge. It would move at its own pace", President Kufuor told a durbar of chiefs and people of Tamale as part of his three-day tour of the Northern Region.
He appealed to the workers to stop threatening by wearing red bands and instead be patient and buy time with the government.
The President also asked workers to seek to be productive wherever they were "so that we can put value into our money and earn more on what we produce".
The President said the NPP would never take the interest of the working masses for granted, adding that he has directed the sector minister to talk with the leadership of the workers to ensure sanity in the labour front.
Within 11 months, the NPP government has stabilised the cedi and interest rates were also coming down, he observed and recalled that last year the cedi depreciated by more than 100 per cent as compared to only three per cent this year.
The President said the decision to join the Highly Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) initiative was yielding dividends. Apart from the cancellation of the 200 million dollar debt, the international creditors would meet by mid-January to cancel many debts owed by Ghana.
The President said Ghana would save over 200 million dollar next year from the HIPC initiative.
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Ghana a strategic market in West Africa -
US Ambassador
Accra (Greater Accra) 14 November 2001 - Ms Nancy Powell, US Ambassador on Tuesday said Ghana remains a strategic market in West Africa.
"While Ghana is relatively small in terms of global trade with the United States, it remains a strategic market in West Africa and one in which the American government sees a tremendous potential for commence," she said.
Ghana's conducive economic environment, she said has generated a lot of American interest to build business relationship with trade and potential investment partners in the country.
Ms Powell made the assertion during a press and exhibitors' preview of "America and Ghana - Partners in Development" business trade and investment fair scheduled from September 25 to 28, 2002 in Accra.
Michael Owen, Head of the Economic/Commercial section of the US embassy read her speech on her behalf. The fair would focus on trade and investment opportunities for American companies and organisations interested in penetrating the West African market.
Ms Powell said Ghana had already proved to be an attractive destination for American investment through improved infrastructure and the government's commitment to the growth of the private sector.
She identified telecommunication, information technology, agriculture and food processing as major prospects for American investors in Ghana.
Kwamina Bartels, Minister of Private Sector Development, reiterated the government's goal to create an environment in which the private sector could flourish to provide the necessary growth to move the economy forward.
He, however, expressed concern about the outdated company code, lack of long term loans for investors, high interest rate, bureaucracy at the entry points and government's domestic borrowing to the detriment of local industries.
Mrs Victoria Cooper, President of American Chamber of Commerce (AMCHAM), said global trend demands cooperation among African states to attract needed investment.
She said with Ghana as the Gateway to the West Africa sub-region, the fair would offer American investors the opportunity to access the larger regional market.
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Accra (Greater Accra) 14 November 2001-Henceforth anybody, including chiefs, who recruit landguards to harass innocent land developers would be arrested and prosecuted, Dr Kofi Kesse Manfo, Greater Accra Region Police Commander warned on Tuesday.
"Consequently we want to advise you to stop recruiting these people with all respect to the chieftaincy institution," he told the media after a meeting on Tuesday with over 30 chiefs from satellite communities around Accra.
Dr Manfo said contracting landguards in any form constituted a criminal action and anyone who indulged in it would be drastically dealt with according to law.
He said it was unacceptable for chiefs, who should know better, to employ landguards to cause mayhem. "You become accomplices and under the law you commit an offence." The Regional Commander said the menace of landguards threatened the very foundation of law and order, second to armed robbery.
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Accra (Greater Accra) 14 November 2001- Charles O. Nyanor, Minister of State at the Office of Government Economic Team, on Tuesday gave the assurance that the investment climate in the country was very good and there were no hindrances in the exploitation of mineral deposits.
He said what was needed, however, was for interested companies and investors to enter into proper negotiations with the government through the Minerals Commission for the proper licence to operate.
Mr Nyanor told two joint delegations from Wassa Mineral Resources Limited undertaking feasibility studies on the Kibi Bauxite Project and bhp Billiton International from the Netherlands, who paid a courtesy call on him.
The government, he said, needed to know the outcome of the feasibility studies conducted at the Kibi Bauxite site to commit itself to its exploitation since it has the potential of earning foreign exchange for the country and creating job.
Mr Nyanor said there was the need for the two companies to hold extensive negotiations to arrive at suitable mutual agreement to enable the government take a stand.
Professor Kwame Eshun-Wilson, Managing Director of Wassa Mineral Resources Limited, a local company undertaking the feasibility studies on the Kibi Bauxite Project, said the company had taken certain measures to ensure the implementation of the project.
These included evaluation of the resources at the site, the quality and quantity and to seek for technical and financial support for the exploitation and processing the bauxite into alumna.
Prof. Eshun-Wilson said the company had undertaken feasibility reports on the potential of the Kibi Project and Billiton was in the country to familiarise themselves with the project and hold further discussions with officers of the Wassa Mineral Resources Limited.
Mr John van der Riet, Bauxite and Alumna technologist of bhp Billiton, said the company was listed on both the London and South African Stock Exchange as a corporate entity.
He said the visit was a follow up to an earlier one made to Kibi and to study the investment climate of the country and to seek areas to invest.
Mr Riet said the company would be interested to process the bauxite into alumna and a good railway network to cart the bauxite.
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Sunyani (Eastern Region) 14 November 2001- Anthony Boafo, Acting Brong Ahafo Regional Storekeeper of Cocoa Inputs Stores has denied allegations of embezzlement of funds as alleged by 1993/94 national best farmer.
Speaking to newsmen at Sunyani on Tuesday, he said Nana Yaw Barima Suadwa, 1993/94 national best cocoa and coffee farmer who made the allegations in the "Ghanaian Times" of November 13, and called for an investigation, "acted out of malice and bitterness".
"To the best of my knowledge, he has an axe to grind with some people within the Ghana Cocoa, Coffee and Sheanut Farmers Association and wanted to destroy them".
The Regional Storekeeper was reacting to the publication, in which Nana Suadwa alleged that billions of cedis, being proceeds from the sale of spraying machines, insecticides, cutlasses and wellington boots, had been embezzled at stores at Goaso, Hwidiem, Sunyani, Bechem, Mim, Sankore, Asumura and Kukuom.
Nana Suadwa also called for the dissolution of the farmers' association because "it is headed by politicians who are not genuine farmers".
Asked if he would welcome a probe into the operation of the stores, Mr Boafo said he was not the right person to answer and directed newsmen to his boss in Accra.
He told the media that Input Stores were audited every six months and storekeepers found to have misappropriated funds were sanctioned. At the moment, some storekeepers are facing court action for such offences, he said.
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Elmina (Central Region) 14 November 2001 - Ghana NGO coalition on the rights of the child, a non-governmental organisation, is to provide parents of children, who loiter around the tourist sites of Cape Coast and Elmina, with seed capital to go into income generating ventures in order to take care of the children.
The project, which forms part of efforts to eliminate child labour in the tourism industry, would involve researching into the background of the children to find those whose parents are not capable of providing their needs and assist them, Mrs Cecilia Adu, an official of the coalition, announced on Tuesday during the launching of a "programme of action to eliminate child labour' in the tourism industry within the two towns, at Elmina.
The programme, which is basically aimed at checking truancy among school children and child begging, would in addition offer assistance to those who drop out of school.
Mrs Adu, expressed concern about the negative impact tourism was having on children in the two towns and urged the assemblies to enact bylaws to help address the situation and suggested the deployment of security personnel to these areas to ward off children, particularly at the Elmina and Cape Coast castles.
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Doha (Qatar) 14 November 2001 -The UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) on Tuesday said more than 62 million people around the world are in need of food assistance now than was the case three years ago.
Mr Hartwig de Haen, Assistant Director-General of FAO Economic and Social Department told the Fourth Ministerial Conference of WTO in Doha that most developing countries continue to depend on food imports although agriculture was still the backbone of their economies.
According to him agricultural development was key to poverty alleviation and food insecurity in the developing nations. The latest FAO report puts the value of world food trade in 1999 at about 310 billion dollars, twice the level recorded in 1980. It said Developing countries accounted for 27 per cent of the trade in 1999, the same share they had in 1980, although their food import bills increased by 60 per cent to 84 billion dollars.
"These trends highlight not only the growing importance of trade in meeting food consumption needs, especially for developing counties but also their growing food bill," Mr Haen said and added that the importance of agriculture and rural development is simply not being emphasised enough leading to a situation of increasing dependency on food imports in many countries.
Mr de Haen noted that debate on agricultural trade liberalisation and environmental protection at the conference was complicated because the developed and developing countries had "quite different" perspectives on the issue.
Mr de Haen said the FAO was of the view that countries were discriminated against in the use of special standards labels to indicate that a product conforms to certain standards, pointing out that ,"if the eco-labelling requirements are not in accordance with WTO rules, they may function as discriminatory trade measures."
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