The Country Director of USAIDS Ghana, Girmay Haile has lauded the government’s decision to introduce the 1 district 1 factory policy.
The policy he intimated will help transform the country from a resource based economy to an industrialised one.
He bemoaned the absence of value addition on the resources we have in the country and explained that the decision to introduce such a project will go a long way to strengthen the economy.
“The policy is to industrialise the country, the interpretation of the government is to start from the community with a factory. That way they have pushed the agenda to the community they have pushed the district to the expert, they have pushed the agenda to the investor.” He stated.
He added that the policy also gives the opportunity to the community to focus more on it capacity and what it can contribute to the growth and development of its inhabitants and the country by extension
“We need to look at Ghana and identify what is feasible in terms of industrialisation in each district and each district will have to identify what its actual wealth and capacities are in order for it to start to plan at the district level, a development plan. So I think it’s a right step In the right direction and we need to and should benefit from that policy,” he insisted.
He, however, cautioned that for districts to have the full benefits of the policy, government must dialogue with stakeholders and have broad consultations.
He was sad that a sector like Agriculture which is touted as the backbone of the economy and contributes about 17%-20% to the economy but investment in less than 5% of government expenditure.
The USAID Ghana Country Director expressed worry that most transnational companies that operate in the country end up remitting most of its returns leaving Ghana with nothing.
He called for a proper policy framework to correct such business practices as the country is on the losing side most of the time.
He made these revelations to www.ghanaweb.com on the sidelines of day two of the Ghana CEO’s Summit held at the Kempinski Hotel Gold Coast City in Accra on Tuesday.
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