Government to ensure efficient performance of services sector – Minister
Dr Kwaku Agyemang-Mensah, Ashanti Regional Minister, has said the Government would do everything to support the services sector to become more vibrant and efficient.
The sector, he noted, held a lot of promise for the nation given its job creation potential.
Dr Agyemang-Mensah said, currently, the sector was contributing more than 70 per cent of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in the industrialized world with international imports of commercial services, excluding transport and tourism hitting over $1.4 trillion.
He said Ghana’s exports of commercial services (not including transportation and travel) accounted for approximately $420 million in 2009.
Dr Agyemang-Mensah said this showed the enormous contribution of the sector to non-traditional export revenue.
These were contained in a speech read for him at a day’s export awareness workshop held in Kumasi on the theme: “Professional Services Export: A Major Contributor to Economic Growth.”
It was organized by the Ghana Export Promotion Authority and brought together more than 100 participants.
Dr Agyemang-Mensah said the ultimate goal of the Services Strategy was to enhance trade-in-services, which fell within the ambit of the Trade and Industry Ministry.
He was of the conviction that effective collaboration with relevant ministries and stakeholders would produce the requisite synergies necessary for quicker results.
Dr Agyemang-Mensah said there was the need for awareness creation at all levels, identification and removal of constraints militating against the services export sector and specific sector promotion.
He encouraged local industries to take advantage of the opportunities offered by GEPA to improve service delivery, compete favourably in the global market place and stimulate economic prosperity.
Mr Kwaku Owusu Agyemang, Chief Executive Officer of GEPA, said the Authority had initiated a national strategy for the development and promotion of professional services.
To ensure its success, GEPA had stepped up efforts to sensitize people on the importance of professional export services and its impact on economic growth and prosperity.
Mr Agyeman said with the inclusion of oil in the national export portfolio, there was no doubt that the confluences of services, oil exports, traditional and non-traditional export commodities would fast track the nation’s drive of becoming the beacon of Africa.
Source: GNA