Investor advisory council commends government

Page 47: November 10, 2008.
Story: Albert K. Salia
THE Ghana Investors Advisory Council has commended the government for turning around the economy from a heavily indebted poor country status to the achievement of more than six per cent Gross Domestic Product.
It noted that in spite of the challenges that confronted Ghana in the early part of President Kufuor’s administration, the government had achieved remarkable success that was acknowledged world-wide.
"Ghana is now regarded by the World Bank as one of the top 10 reforming countries in the world and the best place to do business in West Africa," it said.
These were contained in a communiqué issued at the end of the eighth meeting of the council at Akosombo at the weekend.
The council consists of 33 selected corporate leaders from the international and local private sector and four observers and it was inaugurated in May 2002 to advise the President of Ghana on the strategies to be taken to attract investment into Ghana’s economy and improve the business climate.
The communiqué recognised the challenges that confronted Ghana at the inception of the council, notably macro-economic instability, extremely high interest rates, the high cost of doing business, low levels of investment and later the energy crisis, escalating petroleum and rising food prices.
It commended the government for the significant progress made on the mutually agreed specific interventions key to Ghana achieving its developmental goals, especially reforms in the financial sector, labour, land administration, the public sector, agriculture and agri-business to build investor confidence and a firm level of competitiveness in Ghana.
It noted in particular the establishment and operationalisation of the International Financial Services Centre, further liberalisation and improved management of the foreign exchange market and a strong re-denominated currency that was stable, with an impressively low record of depreciation.
It also mentioned increased availability of credit to the business community, the passage of legislation to facilitate the establishment of private employment centres, consistently improved minimum wage for workers from GH¢0.31 in 2000 to GH¢2.25 currently and income for farmers such as the quadrupling of the producer price of cocoa from GH¢21.7 in 2000 to GH¢102 currently.
Other achievements, it said, were the creation of the first land information bank, the establishment of functioning client services units in 23 government agencies and the passage of the Pension Reform Bill into law that expanded access to long-term funds.
The communiqué said the council also acknowledged the complementary achievements in the energy, communications and road transport sectors, as well as ports, harbours and railways.
It also mentioned the expansion of the road network by 60 per cent from 38,000 kilometres to 64,000 kilometres, the easing of port congestion and reduction in ship turn around time through measures such as the construction of new container terminals and the modernisation of cargo handling, as well as significant and continuing reduction in the time it took to export and import goods.
"We recognise the high level of responsiveness of the entire Executive machinery to our critical reviews and recommendations," it said, stressing, "We collectively express the view that the council has served its purpose as intended at its inception in 2002."