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lagers. What is your party’s position on planned urban and rural housing? Prof. Mills: It is quite clear that the system is not working and we cannot take any half hearted measures. I will first of all set up a National Human Settlement Commission that is going to look at the whole issue of urban renewal; two; slum prevention and upgrading, three, rural development. Now you need experts to able to do this. We have the science and technology but you need a whole mix of people. You must also ensure that the laws are working. Our town and country laws are no longer working. People build anyhow. They site buildings in places which are clearly prohibited by law but nobody does anything. So we are going to look at urban renewal, slum prevention. Clearly, if you go to our cities the slum areas are getting bigger and bigger because no physical planning is being done; nobody is insisting that the law be upheld, no physical planners are being consulted even before all these things are done and sometimes people who should know better are the worst offenders. Take traffic in Accra. You ask yourself, “where are we going?” You have a situation where along the Tetteh Quarshie Interchange there is a shopping mall. It complicates the problem. You ask yourself don’t we have any physical planners? Don’t we have any town and country planning? When it comes to the rural areas, District Assemblies should play a very important role. The problem is that their physical planning departments are non-existent. I will get in touch with Tech to train more of these physical planners so that they can help with rural rehabilitation, with the houses which are affected by erosion. I believe that something can be done with proper planning. Follow up question: I am sure you all have in your manifestoes to provide affordable housing to the population. But I think affordable housing has become a cliché. In Ghana Cedi terms what is your definition of an affordable house? 52
Prof. Mills: I will say that affordable is the kind of housing which any ordinary person will be able to pay for completely over a 4 year period, using his incomes and other circumstances. Question: The last 4 questions we asked dealt with the environment, housing planning; all these questions you dealt with require massive application of scientific and technological know-how. At the moment there is a perception that science and technology is not receiving the sort of attention that it requires in this country. Prof. Mills: Well Atta-Mills and the NDC will first and foremost re-establish the Ministry of Science and Technology. Two, we are going to ensure that at the JSS-SSS levels the emphasis is on science. We will encourage science learning. We are going to revive the Science Resource Centres that we set up in the secondary schools and which have been allowed to go into disuse. At the university level, we are going to give scholarships to students who study science. Teachers of science are going to be given special incentives. We are going to devote 2% of the GETFUND to research for science and we are also going to have 2 science and technology theme parks for the nation - one sited on the Aburi Mountain, the other one in Cape Coast and link the various universities to these science parks. We therefore want to ensure that science takes its pride of place and that the emphasis is on science. We will encourage research and draw a close relationship between the scientist and business so that they will know the direction science should take our economy. I think that it’s an integrated packet and I think that at the end of the day we will see science flourish. We are not going to sweep science under the carpet. We are going to give it a pride of place. 53
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Delivering On Your Promises: IEA Gh
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The Institute of Economic Affairs (
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PREFACE The Institute of Economic A
Page 7 and 8: 1. AN EVENING ENCOUNTER WITH PRESID
Page 9 and 10: consider this unacceptable. Even mo
Page 11 and 12: HIV/AIDS. Indeed, about a week ago
Page 13 and 14: ated with its production and distri
Page 15 and 16: ing glory to the efforts by the GNP
Page 17 and 18: QUESTION AND ANSWER SECTION Matilda
Page 19 and 20: youth, who are the future. Here we
Page 21 and 22: Now you ask about the language we a
Page 23 and 24: teaching will no longer be taken in
Page 25 and 26: It tells you that where you have a
Page 27 and 28: Ernest Owusu Aboagye, Pharmaceutica
Page 29 and 30: their full dignity. We have a lot o
Page 31 and 32: of you come to me under cover of da
Page 33 and 34: Harry Williams: Prof. you spoke ext
Page 35 and 36: Akwasi Sarpong, JOY FM: Prof Mills,
Page 37 and 38: know that it is not the state’s d
Page 39 and 40: Indeed we have cases where there is
Page 41 and 42: what you are saying. That is what m
Page 43 and 44: teachers, the teacher is at the cen
Page 45 and 46: issue if we think that NHIS alone i
Page 47 and 48: get enough. We’ve already said th
Page 49 and 50: As a young lecturer I used to think
Page 51 and 52: • We look at the judiciary - is t
Page 53 and 54: Dr. Nduom that the time has come wh
Page 55 and 56: Prof. Mills: I have two. I would ha
Page 57: Question: According to the 2000 Pop
Page 61 and 62: Question: You have each touched on
Page 63 and 64: There is the perception that we are
Page 65 and 66: with you. You may have heard our di
Page 67: THE INSTITUTE OF ECONOMIC AFFAIRS I
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