Akropong-Akuapem (Eastern Region) - The Minister of Energy, Albert Kan-Dapaah, has described the government's decision to increase the prices of petroleum products as "painful but necessary".

He explained, however, that the government calculated all the consequential fall-outs of the decision and felt it was in the national interest to take such a bold decision now to save the economy for posterity.

Kan-Dapaah, who was addressing a regional rally of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) at Akropong-Akuapem on Sunday, declared that the two most "positive changes" that had happened to the country since the two-year Kufour administration took over power were the decisions on assessing the HIPC Initiative and the hike in the petroleum prices.

According to him, the two decisions were based on the true state of national affairs which the people must be told but which the previous government "shied away from thereby risking the nation's current and future development."

The Minister of Finance, Yaw Osafo Maafo, stated that even though the Kufuor administration inherited a huge debt from its predecessor, it was determined to pay it and bequeath a buoyant economy for generations to come.

He said the administration had resolved to improve the income level of cocoa farmers to enable them recapture their former financial status, saying this had already began by increasing the producer price of the commodity four times within two years from 241,000 cedis to 531,000 cedis per bag.

Osafo Maafo urged the people to be patient with the government since it was taking systematic policies to resuscitate the economy, adding that this had already brought down the interest rate from 54 per cent to 27 per cent while inflation was also falling steadily.

The Attorney General and Minister of Justice, Nana Akufo-Addo, stated that if there was any group of politicians which had been "telling the truth" to Ghanaians then it was the NPP tradition dating from the days of Dr J.B. Danquah who "even suffered detention and death based on those principles."

He spelt out those principles as democratic governance, rule of law and private sector-led economy, which he said, were now being implemented world-wide. Nana Akufo-Addo cited the repeal of the criminal libel law to buttress the point that the administration believed in freedom of speech by the people to enable them take part in national governance, the setting up of the fast track courts for speedy trials and equipping the police to discharge their duties efficiently.

The Minister of Communication and Technology, Felix Owusu Agyapong, said the NPP was strictly following its manifesto for which it won power, saying this was manifesting in the recent trunk roads projects among other policy initiatives which the people would have to use to judge it in the 2004 elections.

He asked Ghanaians to be patient with the government and give it 20 years to deliver as they "allowed the Rawlings regimes before you judge who did better for the nation."

The Eastern Regional Minister, Dr Francis Osafo-Mensah, urged Ghanaians to have faith in the capability of the Kufuor administration to develop the country and stressed the need for respect of the law and authority as the bedrock for development. Speakers at the rally included the Regional NPP Chairman, Nana Adi Ankama, District Chief Executives and Parliamentarians.