Bartels Explains Mission

When President John Agyekum Kufuor, announced his Cabinet reshuffled two and half months ago and shifted Hon. Kwabena Bartels from the Ministry of Rural Development to the newly outdoor Ministry of Private Sector Development, many though that it was a mere sidelining of the man President Kufuor has described as the lynchpin of his vision of the catalytic role of the private sector.

Even the Senior Minister and Chairman of the Government Economic Management Team told Chronicle in an interview at camp Elmina that indeed the learned Lawyer, who doubles as a businessman and politician is the right choice for the position.

In a speech that confirmed the Presidents' confidence in him, and dispelled doubts about his competence, Hon. Bartels defined the mission of his Ministry as ensuring the co-ordinations of sectoral efforts, promotion of positive attitudes toward private enterprise, fostering an enabling, competitive and rewarding business environment and ensuring the elimination of bureaucratic restrictions and impediments.

He said this mission calls for on one hand more focus and sustainable strategies for private sector driven economic growth that will engender a harmonious and systematic integration of the public and private sectors on the economic policy front.

Hon. Bartels, however identified the close consultation with the private sector as a crucial element for the development of the private sector policy framework.

Partnership between the private and public sectors he noted, are becoming a common place as a means of ensuring that government policies reflect the views of the private ventures.

He suggested the need to have a regular forum where the private sector and public sector agencies can exchange views on important policy issues.

To this end, the Minister proposed to establish an Advisory Board on Private Sector Development to consist of representatives of the private sector and experts.

Outlining the Ministry's programme, he mentioned that with a staff of lean 20 men, it is focus on four main functions; institutional reform (lands registration, custom procedures, slow judicial process, inadequate and outmoded companies code among others), promotion of entrepreneurship and innovation, policy analysis, evaluation and monitoring and promotion of public private partnership.

The formulation of an effective policy framework for private sector development. he said, depends critically on the ability of policy makers to draw on appropriate quantitative and quality data and information such as industrial statistics and broader information on the conditions prevailing in the private ventures and the requirements of private entrepreneurs.

He said as part of the Ministry's monitoring activities, he pledged to establish critical success -indicators to enable the government in stimulating the private ventures.

The state's capacity to achieve the goals of poverty reduction he pointed out are increasingly dependent on leveraging its limited resources by establishing what is called the private-public-partnership (PPP).

Adding, such partnerships are arrangement between government and private sector entities for the purpose of providing public infrastructures and other community related facilitates.

He also pointed out the Ministry's objectives to promote businesses in the country at a competitive advantage.