Investors to Troop After Mills's Trip to UK

Posted: The Chronicle| Wednesday, 13 May 2009


By Charles Takyi-Boadu

The Government says it is confident that sooner than later, foreign investors and businesses will be trooping into the country in droves, to either invest or partner Ghanaian companies to do business.

The Trade and Industry Minister, Ms. Hannah Tetteh, has thus sought to clear doubts being expressed in some quarters about the prudence or otherwise of President Mills' recent trip to the United Kingdom, accompanied by a delegation of some members of his government.

At a press briefing in Accra yesterday, the Minister noted that they were in talks with a lot of foreign investors, and businesses who have not just expressed, but also shown keen interest in coming to invest in the country.

In spite of the global economic effect, she noted, "it was quite clear that Ghana was considered to be a very interesting and exciting business destination, with very good future prospects."

She has thus given Ghanaians her word that they would soon realise the benefits of the President's trip to the UK.

As a first step towards the realisation of this dream, she indicated that the British Minister of State for Trade and Investment, Lord Davies of Abersoch, will be leading a trade delegation to Ghana in September this year, to facilitate the move.

It has thus been agreed that the Minister of Trade and Industry of Ghana would work together with Ghanaian Business Associations to develop a list of UK businesses that the government will like to attract to Ghana, either to invest on their own, or enter into joint ventures with their Ghanaian counterparts in various business sectors.

This is to ensure that Ghana received the maximum benefits from such an investment trip.

Hannah Tetteh gave details of some of the meetings and engagements the government delegation held with some of these prospective investors, stressing that the discussions on investment opportunities were engaging and frank.

According to her, most of the discussions focused on private sector investors.

Over the next few weeks or months, the government says it will be continuing the dialogue to ensure that more of such businesses have the opportunity to join the country do business profitably.During the trip, the Trade and Industry Minister said she and her other colleague Ministers of Finance, had discussions with the UK Department for International Development (DFID) on the issue of private sector development and trade facilitation.

This was in view of an existing private sector development programme, which will come to an end this year.

The programme is a multi-donor supported facility, with DFID being one of the donor partners.

The discussions were thus centered on the renewal of the facility, and the focus areas which the government would like to have addressed in the next phase of the programme.

It was later agreed that the discussion be continued in Accra with the DFID and other development partners, to fashion out a programme that would address the priority areas for private sector investment, as defined by the Mills' administration.

I did my best at Korle Bu -Frimpong Boateng

Posted: The Chronicle | Friday, May 15, 2009



By Charles Takyi-Boadu
The former Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the nation’s premier hospital, the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital (KBTH), and the first blackman to undertake a successful heart transplant in sub-Saharan Africa, Professor Dr. Kwabena Frimpong-Boateng, is obviously not happy with what appears to be a deliberate and calculated attempt by sections of the media to tarnish his reputation.

He said he did not have any intentions whatsoever of descending into the gutters with the papers, since his achievements as CEO of the hospital speaks volumes.

Speaking in an interview with this reporter, Prof. Frimpong Boateng wondered why some Ghanaians took delight in ruining the reputations of individuals in the country.

Frimpong-Boateng, who is the head of the National Cardiothoracic Centre, noted that despite all accusations being made against him, the Ghana Post had crowned his deeds by embossing their newest stamps with a couple of the things he managed to achieve for Korle-Bu during his days as CEO.

He talked of three of the new stamps, which have the embossment of the new Administration Block of the hospital, the Cardiothoracic Center, and the third one which has his own embossment.

After achieving this and other monumental feats for the nation and Korle-Bu, he could not fathom why anybody, or his detractors, would seek to drag his name and reputation into the mud without cause.

He also takes pride in the fact that he has been able to establish a Cardiothoracic Centre which is now recognised by the West African College of Surgeons, for training heart surgeons, cardiologists, cardiac anesthetists, operating room nurses, intensive care nurses, cardiac technicians, and other cardiothoracic technicians.

Newspaper reports had alleged that contrary to the praises heaped on Frimpong-Boateng, for his instrumental leadership in the building of the administrative block for the hospital, the children’s block, which is a few meters close to the administration, was in a deplorable condition, such that between four and five children, and in some cases six, new-born babies share a bed.

It was also alleged that some of the basic necessities like water filters are not available, stressing that the situation at the Surgical Medical Emergency (SME) unit and other departments of the hospital, was more pathetic.

This is what baffles Prof. Frimpong-Boateng’s imagination, wondering why such blame could be apportioned to him, when he left office almost two years ago.

In spite of this, the learned doctor has indicated that he was not the least moved by the continuous churning of falsehood by his detractors, to tarnish the image and reputation he has built for himself over the years.

VEEP PROMISES BRIGHT FUTURE FOR GHANA

… Urges Ghanaians to explore oil sector
Posted:The Chronicle | Friday, May 15, 2009



By Charles Takyi-Boadu
Vice President John Dramani Mahama is optimistic of the government’s ability to lift Ghana’s struggling economy from its present state. According to him, they are working hard to reverse what he described as the ‘serious deterioration’ in the economic fortunes that his party inherited.

He gave this assurance in a speech read on his behalf by Trade and Industry Minister, Ms. Hannah Tetteh, at the 15th Anniversary celebration of Strategic Communications Africa (Stratcom Africa) in Accra on Wednesday.

“We are bringing down the huge budget deficit that reached record levels that have never been seen in the Ghanaian economy,” he said.

He believes this can be achieved through austere measures, as announced by Finance Minister, Dr. Kwame Duffuor, in his maiden budget presentation to Parliament.

For this reason, he was confident that his government would be able to bring down the deficit, and restore the health of the economy.

This, according to him, was what would enable local enterprisesto have access to cheaper credit, stressing “the credit needs of smaller scale enterprises, in particular, are occupying centre stage for the government of President Mills.”

He consequently encouraged local enterprises to take advantage of the opportunities presented by the rapidly developing oil and gas industry in Ghana, to better their lot.

“We cannot accept that out of the billions of dollars to be invested in the exploration and development stages of a large project like the Jubilee project, only a small share goes to local enterprises,” he said, and encouraged Ghanaians “to be active in pursuing opportunities in this sector.”

The Vice President, however, had a word of advice for those who may have interests. “We should not do this by being passive fronts or agents for foreign companies. We must work to create local enterprises, even if it is not easy in the beginning.”

That way, he said, the benefits of the country’s natural resources would accrue to its people, and not the foreigners who are descending on the Western Region in their numbers.

Mr. Mahama cautioned foreign partners involved in developing the Jubilee fields, to endeavour to stick to the rules of the game, by strictly conforming to the provisions of laws that were passed in 1980’s by the Provisional National Defdence Council (PNDC) to regulate petroleum exploration, which requires that preference be given to using local goods and services, and that Ghanaians be employed at all levels of the operations, once they have the requisite expertise.

To him, the challenge was for Ghanaians to show their capabilities and exhibit the highest levels of professionalism, whether as welders, rig workers, engineers, financial or administrative staff, in order to lay claim to the job positions that are being created.

On her part, the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Stratcom Africa, Esther Amba Numaba Cobbah, urged her colleagues in the communications industry to rise up to the challenge, to ensure that they scale new heights of effectiveness in what they do.

“As we see with athletes, the raising of the bar inspires people to new levels of effort and achievement. We train harder to make us able to break that old record,” she emphasised.

Through self-discipline and with a sense of responsibility to the nation, she urged her colleagues to rise to new heights of performance.

She identified one of the major challenges in the country’s communications industry, as the rush to produce materials such as brochures, without determining what the real communication need was.

This, according to her, could lead to the wasting of resources, and therefore advised those in the communications industry to device new and innovative methods in meeting the demands of their clients.

Though she admits there have been challenges over the years, the CEO said one thing that kept the company going, was the determination to maintain a good reputation.

Ms. Cobbah took the opportunity to express her profound gratitude to all stakeholders in the industry, especially Stratcom’s numerous clients, staff and the media, for helping to build a brand name for themselves.

Present were government ministers and business tycoons, including Bernard Mensah, a partner of the United Kingdom-based Goldman Sachs, who was the Guest Speaker.

Barbara Sika Baeta, Founder and Managing Director of Flair Catering Services, chaired the programme.