Daily Heritage November 29

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DAILY HERITAGE WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 29, 2017 11
Politics
“Be who you are and say what you feel, because
those who mind don't matter, and those who
matter don't mind” ― Bernard M. Baruch
Investing in Ghana
is safe — First Lady
BY RICHARD DANKWA DARKO
FIRST LADY Mrs Rebecca
Akufo-Addo has
assured Chinese investors
at a conference
to promote trade relations
between Ghana and China in
Hunan in the Changsha Province
of China that their investments in
Ghana will always be safe.
Addressing the “2017 Ghana-
Hunan Economic and Trade Conference”
hosted by the China
Council for the Promotion of International
Trade (CCPIT), the
First Lady touted Ghana’s credentials
as a safe and profitable place
for Chinese investors.
She stated that Ghana is ‘globally
acknowledged democracy’
which has changed governments
successfully since 1992 ‘without
causing any dislocations to the political,
economic or social systems
of the country’ therefore ‘all in-
vestors are assured of a stable and peaceful
country to invest in.’
Mrs Akufo-Addo added that Ghana has
“an assertive parliament, an independent judiciary
and a vibrant media” and these are
“safeguards against unpredictable actions of
• Mrs Rebecca Akufo-Addo, First Lady
any one person or government and further
serves as security for the protection of investment.”
The First Lady noted that Ghana as the
second largest ECOWAS economy with a
total market of about 500 million people is
strategically placed to open up new
and additional markets to boost
their investment.
She further said “Ghana’s acclaimed
educational system has ensured
that the majority of its work
force has the needed skills that industry
requires or where those skills
do not exist, the workers could be
easily trained to become productive.”
Investor incentives
The First Lady also indicated
Ghana has a generous investor incentive
through the Ghana Investment
Promotion Centre (GIPC),
free zones enterprise and other institutions
adding that “regardless of
where the investment was, the government
had instituted a number of
generous incentives for the investor
depending on the activity or the location
of the investment to ensure
that their investment thrived.”
Listing some of the investment
opportunities in Ghana, she said
agriculture and agro processing was
an area that was ripe for investment.
She added other priority areas
such as energy sector especially renewable
as well as infrastructure
sector such as roads, railways, ports,
airports, public housing and real estate
development, manufacturing
and industry, mining industrial, salt,
gold, bauxite and iron ore and
tourism, ICT and in the financial
services sector especially equity financing.
Development
programmes
The Deputy Head of Macroeconomic
Research Unit, Ministry
of Finance, Dr Millicent DeGraft-
Johnson who spoke on the governments
short to medium-term
development programme said it
was aimed at providing opportunities
for growth and job creation
through the private sector, and had
developed concrete reform actions
to tackle key challenges to private
investment such as ensuring macroeconomic
stability and debt sustainability,
improving the ease of doing
business and enhancing access to
affordable and long-term financing
and de-risking instruments.
Ghana’s Ambassador to China,
Mr Edward Boateng in a remark
said the summit will go a long way
to deepen the relationship between
Ghana and China as well as facilitate
investment into the One-District-One-Factory
(1D1F) initiative.
The First Lady later witnessed
the signing of a cooperation agreement
on Economy and Trade between
CCPIT Hunan and the AGI
and an Agricultural Cooperation
Project between the CRI and the
Hunan Hybrid-rice Research Center.
NDC will not scrap Free SHS — Mahama
FORMER PRESIDENT John Dramani Mahama
has rejected media reports suggesting that
the National Democratic Congress (NDC) will
reverse the Free SHS policy if it returns to office
in the future.
Mr Mahama said the NDC, however, believes
that the New Patriotic Party’s (NPP’s)
current implementation of the programme was
rushed, hence the numerous challenges it is
being confronted with.
In a Facebook post yesterday, the former
President said many people in the governing
(NPP) as well as civil society believe the current
challenges of the programme could have been
avoided if the government had taken time to
broadly consult with the various stakeholders
before rolling it out.
“A more carefully considered plan of implementation
adopted by broad stakeholder consultation
would have resulted in clear policies
and guidelines, which would have avoided the
current challenges plaguing the programme and
putting our students in an uncompromised situation.
“This view is not mine only. Many in the
NPP and non-partisan civil society hold the
same opinion. It is not too late to hold a national
stakeholders forum on the Free SHS Programme
in order to carry the whole nation
along,” he stated.
National dialogue
Speaking at Tarkwa in the Western Region
• John Dramani Mahama,
Former President
during the recently organised NDC’s Unity
Walk, Mr Mahama urged the government to
start a national dialogue and set up a stakeholder
conference on the Free SHS policy to
save the programme.
“…for just the first year and we are seeing
such problems, then it means these problems
are going to be multiplied by three in the coming
years,” the former President warned.
“A more carefully considered
plan of implementation
adopted by broad
stakeholder consultation
would have resulted in
clear policies and guidelines,
which would have
avoided the current challenges
plaguing the programme
and putting our
students in an uncompromised
situation”
‘Free SHS law important
A Senior Law lecturer at the University of
Ghana Law School, Dr Raymond Atuguba, has
asked the Akufo-Addo government to pass a
legislation making the Free Senior High School
policy binding on future administrations.
He has expressed fears that if such legislation
is not passed, the policy may collapse as it
could be abandoned by a different political
party that assumes power.
Below is the full Facebook post
of President Mahama
NDC WILL NOT REVERSE FREE SHS
There are no “naysayers” when it comes to
free SHS. After all, it was recognized and enshrined
in our constitution by the ordinary people
of this nation who gathered at the
Consultative Assembly and drew up the 1992
constitution.
Disagreement over the programme is about
the optimal pace of implementation. A more
carefully considered plan of implementation
adopted by broad stakeholder consultation
would have resulted in clear policies and guidelines,
which would have avoided the current
challenges plaguing the programme and putting
our students in harm’s way.
This view is not mine only. Many in the
NPP and non-partisan civil society hold the
same opinion. It is not too late to hold a national
stakeholders forum on the Free SHS Programme
in order to carry the whole nation
along. The current legacy-seeking and ad hoc
manner of implementation will multiply the
current implementational problems over the
next 3 years.
The false publication by a newspaper that
the NDC will reverse free SHS is most laughable,
false and diversionary.
Free SHS is constitutional, it must be implemented,
but it must be implemented properly
according to a clear plan that carries all stakeholders
along.