Ghanaian businesses asked to be abreast with global trade policies
Ghanaian businesses have been asked to make deliberate effort to become more abreast of global trade policies to take advantage of them to grow.
Mr. Fredrick Alipui, Policy Advisor to the Trade and Industry Ministry, said they should be conversant with the Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA), African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA), Economic Community of West Africa States (ECOWAS) Trade Liberalization Scheme and the ECOWAS External Tariff and their relevance to trade.
He was speaking at a day’s stakeholders’ meeting held in Kumasi to build the capacity of the local industries to explore opportunities to expand their operations.
The programme was organized by the Ghana Chamber of Commerce and Industry (GCCI) and was part of its “Business network session”, a project designed to bring efficiency into the business value chain.
It was held under the theme “Promoting Ghana’s domestic trade and industry for the ECOWAS market”.
Mr. Alipui, who is also the Greater Accra Regional Chairman of the Chamber, underlined the need for the local businesses to adopt best practices and said that was vital to penetrate the international market.
He said, it was refreshing, the considerable improvement of the economic performance of the continent over the past 15 years and said the momentum should be sustained.
A recent Africa competitiveness report of the World Economic Forum, said Africa’s economic performance had improved.
After two decades of negative per capita growth, the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth, has averaged five per cent per year.
Mr. Alipui, however indicated that, despite the significant achievement, the region’s participation in the global trade and investment flows remained relatively low compared with other continents.
It was to help change the trend that GCCI was increasing its engagement with members to expose them to the dynamics of the global trade for their own benefit.
Nana Appiagyei Dankawoso, President of the Chamber, said the National Export Development Programme developed by MoTI was meant to empower the local industries – for a vibrant private sector.
The goal, he said, was to turn the nation into an export-driven economy, delivering high levels of productivity and decent jobs on a scale significant to achieving equitable socio-economic development.
Nana Dankawoso appealed to the government to make private sector growth an urgent priority.
Source: GNA