Ghana on track to consolidate middle income status – Finance Ministry

A three-day workshop on the 2013 budget and economic policy has opened at the Anita Hotel in the Ejisu-Municipality with the assurance by the Finance Ministry that Ghana is on track to consolidate its lower middle income status.

Major Samuel Mahama Tara (Retired), Chief Director of the Ministry, said they were focusing on the implementation of programmes to strengthen the country’s middle income status and extend its benefits to current and the future generations.

“As a nation that is determined to learn from its history (and that of others), with respect to natural resource management, we have passed the Petroleum Revenue Management (Act) to direct the use of identifiable oil and gas revenues.”

He said they had been complying with the Act to give meaning to President John Mahama’s vision of transparent and accountable government.

The workshop is being held for budget officers of Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies and the Information Service Department in the Northern Sector to adequately equip them to better explain this year’s 2013 budget and economic policy to the people.

Jointly organized by the Ministries of Finance and Information and Media Relations, it is meant to help deepen the understanding of the participants of the details and nuances of the budget.

Major Tara said one of the critical challenges that the nation faced in its quest to give real meaning to its position as a middle income country was the imperative need to widen the socio-economic space.

This called for both rehabilitation of the existing infrastructure and the construction of new ones to create international competitiveness for indigenous private businesses.

Mr Samuel Sarpong, out-going Ashanti Regional Minister, urged the participants to take keen interest in the deliberations and cooperate with the resource persons to help realize the objectives of the workshop.

He said this year’s budget had been fashioned to consolidate the economic gains made over the past four years.

Source: GNA