By
Godwill Arthur- Mensah, GNA
Accra, Sept. 18, GNA – Vice President Dr
Mahamudu Bawumia has assured the public of government’s commitment to
implementing its industrialisation plan designed to transform the Ghanaian
economy.
He said government would continue to offer
incentives to local industries similar to those offered to foreign companies
wishing to set up businesses in Ghana.
Vice President Bawumia said such incentives
had already been offered to a number of local industries, leading to the
gradual revival of well-known household names like the Tema-based aluminium
smelter, Volta Aluminium Company (VALCO) and garment producing Akosombo
Textiles Limited (ATL).
Similar thinking, he explained, went into the
Policy of ‘One District, One Factory’ to bring about rural industrialisation
and ensure value addition to primary products, while providing jobs and growing
the national economy.
“Whatever incentives we give to foreign
companies wishing to set up in Ghana, whatever the industry, we will offer the
same to Ghanaian companies so we can revive and/or grow our local industries
too,” he said.
The Vice President said this when he delivered
the keynote address at the opening of the Ghana Industrial Summit and
Exhibition in Accra.
It was on the theme: “International
Partnerships for Value-Added Industrial and Local Content Development,”
organised by the Association of Ghana Industries, in collaboration with the
Ministry of Trade and Industry.
The Summit aims at providing opportunity for
stakeholders to deliberate on ways to ensure the growth and sustenance of the
Ghanaian economy.
“Special industry-tailored policies and
programmes are also being implemented by the Government, with a view to
ensuring that newly revived companies not only find their feet, but also
contribute to national development and into the overall plan for increased
value-addition to ensure greater earnings,” the Vice President said.
“In the case of VALCO for instance, Parliament
has passed a law to establish the Ghana Integrated Bauxite and Aluminum
Development Corporation in order to build a complete value chain for the
mining, refining and smelting of Ghana’s bauxite to ensure value addition so
that we earn more from the exploitation of our natural resources.”
“That is a multi-billion value chain, VALCO is
a key part of this value chain, and we hope to get them operating at 100 per
cent soon,” he said, adding that ATL, for example, was dead but the Government
had been able to revive it, which had started operations.
“As you all know, we are going to be recruiting
100,000 graduates under the Nation Builders Corp (NABCO), in a few weeks. The
100,000 graduates will have some uniforms, and we are making sure that those
uniforms are produced in Ghana, and ATL is producing those uniforms.
“Once the uniforms are produced, as you know,
each constituency is going to provide about 350 graduates for NABCO. We are
also insisting that the local tailors in these constituencies are the ones that
are going to sew the uniforms, so that we can have some economic activities at that
level too.”
Similar policies to ensure value addition are
also being examined for the oil and the petro-chemical industry, as well as
iron ore deposits in the Northern Region, which influenced the decision to
extend the Western and Eastern spines of the railway network to Paga and
Hamile.
This is to enable the setting up of industries
in the area, with government keen to ensuring local Ghanaian participation in
the extraction and exploitation of natural resources.
Vice President Bawumia said although a number
of foreign companies had signalled their intent to take advantage of the
Akufo-Addo Government’s business-friendly policies, including global automotive
giant VW and Sinotruk International, China’s first heavy duty truck
manufacturer, Government would take a holistic, forward-looking stance in the
design of the policies.
“We’re not looking at it in the context of one
supplier, like VW. We’re looking at a policy that applies to the entire
automobile industry. We’ve had discussions, for example, with our local producers
like Kantanka.
“We will, therefore, make sure that whatever
incentives we’re providing to all these people who are interested in coming
here, like the Nissans and VWs, are also available to the Kantankas of Ghana,”
the Vice President said.
GNA