Gov’t Needs Private Sector Participation

To achieve the desired accelerated economic growth in Ghana, there is the need for true collaboration and partnership amongst government institutions and businesses in the private sector, founder of West Blue Consulting, Valentina Mintah has said.

This she said will ensure that the government provides the enabling legal and regulatory environment and support required for businesses to thrive.

Ms. Mintah made this known during a roundtable discussion at a recent EU-Ghana business forum held in Accra on the theme: “Boosting investments for sustainable jobs in Ghana”.

The event saw the vice president, Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia in Attendance as well as the European Commission vice president, Jyrki Katainen among other industry experts.

Speaking on the topic, “The way forward: establishing priorities for the political, institutional, regulatory and operational frameworks in order to boost investment for job creation in Ghana”, Ms. Mintah called for private sector participation with the government.

The international IT Consultant mentioned some activities which are being pursued to achieve success.

The activities she mentioned were the identification of priority industries; setting shared vision and creating the awareness of the vision across the business, government and the citizenry; business optimization and re-engineering; ensuring supporting legal and regulatory framework-refining existing and creating emerging- technology, and cyber-crime.

The rest she said were co-creating the roadmap for implementation with roles and responsibilities defined and milestones and KPIs identified; capacity building and change management; empowerment within both public and private sectors; and ultimately political will.

“The continues monitoring and evaluation of this framework will certainly set the pace for all parties, individually and collectively, locally and internationally to realize the investment boom and job creation so desired”, she said.

EU Advises Gov’t

The European Union (EU) Commission Vice President for Jobs, Growth, Investment, and Competitiveness, Jyrki Katainen in his remarks said governments have to provide the best framework possible for private enterprises to operate successfully.

“A favorable investment climate is essential for attracting direct investment and for the private sector to grow. While private enterprises must be responsible for their own success, it is still up to governments to provide the best framework possible for those enterprises to operate successfully”, he said.

Mr. Katainen lauded Ghana’s economic recovery, stating “Today the overall outlook for Ghana is optimistic. Ghana is regarded as one of West Africa’s most stable democracies and the European Union is proud to accompany Ghana in its journey towards economic transformation and prosperity.

Bawumia Assures Businesses

Vice president Dr. Bawumia in his speech said the government aims to strengthen the private sector as the engine of growth, with a view to making Ghanaian businesses productive and more competitive.

He assured the private sector that the government was committed to advancing sustainable and inclusive growth, economic transformation and development by enhancing the business and investment climate, as well as by mobilizing investments in the strategic areas of infrastructure, energy, digitization, connectivity, transportation, and agriculture.

He encouraged young entrepreneurs to be innovative in every avenue possible, stating “Government is doing everything to support you in diverse ways to grow your businesses for the bigger markets”.