KEYNOTE ADDRESS DELIVERED BY THE REGIONAL MINISTER,
HON. JOSEPH .Z. AMENOWODE ON THE OCCASION OF
THE NATIONAL LAUNCH OF THE VOLTA TRADE AND INVESTMENT FAIR
AT THE BRITISH COUNCIL, ACCRA.
ON THURSDAY, 24TH SEPTEMBER, 2009
Nana Chairman;
The Hon. Ministers Of State;
The Hon. Members Of Parliament;
The Hon. Municipal/District Chief Executives;
Togbewo, Mamawo, Nananom;
Media Practitioners;
Distinguished Invited Guests;
Ladies And Gentlemen;
It is my privilege and honour to be part of this great occasion of the National launch of the VOLTA TRADE AND INVESTMENT FAIR-2009. I want to take this opportunity to thank His Excellency the Vice President, the Former President, His Excellency Jerry John Rawlings, Togbewo, Mamawo, Reverend Ministers, Hon. Ministers of State, Hon. Members of Parliament and Distinguished Men and Women from both the Public and Private Sectors, from within and outside the Region for taking time off your busy schedules to be part of this very important occasion.
Nana Chairman, the Volta Region has many business potentials which have remained untapped. Among the most important of these are the Agriculture and Tourism potentials which are key sectors that can be properly harnessed to provide more employment and generate income for our people.
Information on the Region shows that the private/informal sector currently provides about 82.9 per cent of all employment while the public formal sector takes only 10.4 per cent. From this statistics, the private sector alone absorbs 93.3 per cent of people on the labour market in the Region while the public sector accounts for only 6.1 per cent with the semi-public/parastatals capturing the remaining 0.2 per cent of the Regional economy.
Nana Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen, the statistics provided above underscores the crucial importance of the private sector in the economy of the Volta Region. The private sector constitutes the key to economic growth and associated developments in the Region and provides opportunities for the involvement of more people particularly, the more vulnerable groups in society, irrespective of their formal educational background in economic and other related activities.
A survey conducted by the Association of Ghana Industries in 2008 indicated that the Volta Region placed very poorly in a number of indicators studied and these ranges from technology usage through to the creation of an enabling business climate. In spite of this, the good news is that the Region chalked some remarkable achievement with some performance indicators. For instance, it placed quite well in the area of industrial output and VAT receipts. This shows that the Region has a higher potential to support viable business development if, the main bottlenecks are addressed.
This situation requires that we tackle the challenges head on, in order to improve the future of businesses and create the enabling environment for our investors. This would bring about the needed employment and create income and also boost production capacity of all the sectors.
Nana Chairman, it is against this background that the Organizers of the Trade and Investment Fair have decided to use the platform of the Fair to create the necessary environment for the private sector and accordingly, expose them to all possible investment opportunities in all the sectors so as to attract investment.
The main objectives of the Fair, which is directed at promoting investments and the total development of all the sectors and parts of the Volta Region, include the following;
- promote agricultural development, that is, food production, agro-based industries and agric businesses in the Region,
- promote the Region’s potential for the development of Tourism and other sectors,
- direct attention to the role of private sector in the Region’s economic development
- explore opportunities for local/foreign partnership,
- reinforce collaboration among all stakeholders from local to national levels, as well as public and private sectors.
Nana Chairman, the Trade and Investment Fair is expected to bring out the following benefits to the Business community, the various Municipal and District Assemblies in the Region and the country at large.
- exposure of all sizes of businesses from the Volta Region and the various Districts within the country, as well as from selected national and international businesses and business supporting programmes that would like to advance the course of investment in the Volta Region,
- generate greater awareness among a large number of investors and key stakeholders about opportunities in Ghana’s private sector in general and that of the Volta Region in particular,
- promote dialogue on strategies for developing competitive agro-industries and other investment opportunities that have the potential to contribute to poverty alleviation and,
- create the necessary platform for all the key stakeholders to bring forward relevant issues emerging from the Fair that affect the development of the Volta Region.
It is on this note that I wish to call on all of us here gathered to join this noble course of assisting to create the right enabling environment for investors as well as help to attract them to the Volta Region.
Ladies and Gentlemen, it is worthy to also note that, this great ambition of making the Volta Region the Investors’ destination and a business haven, which is engineered by the private sector is also inspired by His Excellency the President’s maiden State of the Nation Address, when he stated categorically that “a vibrant, globally competitive private sector must play a key role in the economic transformation and social development of Ghana”.
He went on to further state that “ it is largely the private sector, formal and informal, indigenous and foreign, that will be central in creating jobs and increasing government revenue through taxation, which in turn will fund the social investments such as roads, schools and clinics that the National Democratic Congress (NDC) Government is deeply committed to delivering”.
The Volta Regional Co-ordinating Council, under my administration, and all the Municipal and District Assemblies in the Volta Region equally recognize that the private sector is the engine of growth of all vibrant economies and therefore, pledge to support and assist all businesses that would be coming to the Region to do business. You are all welcome to the Volta Region, MIAWOEZOR.
Finally, Nana Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen, I once again would like to express my sincere gratitude for your presence here this evening and I pray that you would all take advantage of this opportunity of doing business in the Volta Region. I urge you to inform or invite the attention of other sympathizers of the Volta Region to this Fair, as well as inform them about the great business opportunities that are available and which they can exploit to their advantage.
Thank You Very Much And May The Good Lord Be With Us All. |
