Ghana: workshop to review and strenghten partnership with Ue
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Ghana: workshop to review and strenghten partnership with Ue

Ghana: workshop to review and strenghten partnership with Ue

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(AGI) - Accra, 25 nov. - Stakeholders have met at a validationworkshop in Ghana to review and impute into the draft EconomicPartnership Agreement (EPA) Accompanying Measures Strategy. TheEPA Accompanying Measures Strategy provides the roadmap andstrategic framework for utilising the EPA DevelopmentProgrammes (EPADP), and other resources, to ensure that Ghanais fully prepared to maximise the opportunities and meet thechallenges of the Agreement. Dawarnoba Baeka, chief director ofthe ministry of Trade and Industry in the country, at theopening of the workshop, said the EPA Accompanying MeasuresStrategy has been formulated with a participatory approachspanning considerable consultation with both the public andprivate sectors across the 10 regions of Ghana. He said it gavea strategic direction and thrust for mobilising financial andmaterial resources, including those projected within the EPADP,towards maximising the contribution that the Agreement couldmake to the country?s development goals. He said these includemeasures for fully realising the benefits of regionalintegration, for stimulating investment, and in particularEuropean Union (EU) investment in Ghana?s businesses andeconomy, as well as processes for promoting exports andaddressing sanitary and technical barriers to trade, and forpreparing the country to protect import competing industriesfrom unfair trade practices. Baeka said it was firmly believedthat trade and investment offers unrivalled opportunities forproductivity growth and development, and thereby the reductionof poverty and improvement of living standards in the country.He said implementing this Strategy would ensure that the EPAwas seized as a springboard for such trade and investment andresult in a measurable impact on the Ghanaian economy. WilliamHanna, Head of the European Union delegation to Ghana,applauded the adoption of the EPA accompanying measuresstrategy by the country, indicating that it shows the country'scommitment to implement the agreement, and to set up themeasures that would prepare the country to meet the challengesand maximise the emerging opportunities derived from the EPA.He however urged government to improve upon the businessenvironment by ensuring fiscal discipline and macro-economicstability, as more predictability for businesses and investorswould restore investor confidence. He also touched on the issueof corruption, which was very damaging to industry, andencouraged more visible actions from government, with a focuson sanctions and prosecutions. He said the EU would launch aprogramme next month, to support in the fight againstcorruption, and encourage the private sector, civil society andgovernment leadership to join in the alliance against thecanker. Hanna said the EU was already supporting Ghana with theTrade Related Assistance and Quality Enabling Programme whichpromotes trade-led growth, and aims at substantially improvingthe quality infrastructure, making the private sector morecompetitive and ready to export to the European market. He saidthe EU would do more to enhance the competitiveness of theprivate sector and stimulate job creation, as well asproductive investments into agriculture to promote trade withinECOWAS and the EU. The EU, he said would support thistransition to a new economic partnership by creatingopportunities and by increasing companies? competitiveness,while protecting vulnerable producers, but this would requireGhana to undertake associated reforms, to create the adequateenabling business environment and reforms to facilitate tradeflows. He said the EU encourages Ghana to adopt a morepro-business policy and to reduce the costs and time associatedwith doing business. (AGI).
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