President Mahama urges African leaders to liberalise investments
President John Dramani Mahama on Friday called on his colleague African leaders to liberalise and deregulate investments in energy and farming in their various countries.
This, according to the President, would enable the countries to reap the necessary benefits that would help in job creation.
President Mahama said: “In my own country Ghana, we deregulated the telecommunication sector some years back, and it has been instrumental in raising telecommunication and general technology transfer of knowledge in information and communication in the entire country”.
He was addressing African Diplomatic Corps in London, as part of his three-day visit to the United Kingdom.
Apart from meeting Prime Minister David Cameron and the business community in the United Kingdom, President Mahama would attend the G8 summit, which is focused on tax, trade, transparency and the extractive industry.
President Mahama said with the proliferation of technology, there was the need for countries to take advantage of it, to develop the energy sector that was pivotal for investment and infrastructural development on the African continent.
He said with the spate of economic crisis in Europe and other continents, the onus was on Africa to take up that challenge and absorb the investors as the next growth pole after Europe and the Asian Tigers over the years.
On agriculture, President Mahama said Africa was abounding with adequate arable land that could become the food basket of the world in the coming years, and urged African countries to deregulate investment in agriculture to achieve that goal.
President Mahama urged African leaders to avoid investments that could widen the gap between the poor and rich in their countries, by partnering investors that would create a win-win situation for job creation and capacity building.
On general development, President Mahama said African countries could not develop without embracing democracy and good governance.
He, therefore, appealed to African countries to ensure the effective entrenchment of democracy to pave way for socio-economic development.
President Mahama said the celebration of the 50th Anniversary of the African Union was a call on member countries to develop strategies that could help move them to a higher level in the next decades.
He said democracy was a process and not an event, and advised African countries not to be frustrated by impediments on the way to democracy and good governance.
“I want to advice all of you here to accept democracy although it might be costly and frustrating at all levels,” the President said.
Source: GNA