Kufuor arrives in Lusaka for OAU meeting

President John Agyekum Kufuor on Saturday arrived in Lusaka, Zambia to attend the three-day 37th Organisation of African Unity (OAU) Heads of State and government meeting scheduled for July 9-11.
He was met on arrival by President Frederick Chiluba of Zambia and exchanged greetings with ministers of state and the diplomatic corps.
The theme of the three-day conference of 37th Ordinary Session of the Assembly of Heads of State and Government of OAU is "Enhancing Co-operation among African peoples".
Among the activities drawn for the meeting are the Ratification of the Constitutive Act of the African Union whose establishment was declared by African Heads of State and Government at the 5th Extraordinary Session of their assembly in Sirte, Libya in 1999.
A new chairman and secretary-general would be elected as the current chairman, President Gnassingbe Eyadema of Togo ends his tenure of office. The two term tenure of office of the current Secretary-General Dr Salim Ahmed Salim of Tanzania elected in 1989 and won a further four year term in 1997.
President Kufuor made a stop-over in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia where he addressed the Ghanaian community.
The Ghanaian community is a unique one made up of about 40 families most of them are professionals working with international organisations.
These are OAU, Economic Commission of Africa (ECA) and United Nations (UN) agencies.
President Kufuor who was welcomed to the Ghana Embassy by Mr Kwame Tenkorang, Acting ambassador briefed them on government policies and programmes for the past six months.
The President said the government is doing all it could to move Ghana ahead with the removal of subsidies on petroleum products and the recent increases in utility services, water and electricity.
President Kufuor said the stringent economic policies are paying dividends as a result of the self-discipline of government in the management of the economy to avoid waste and over expenditure.
"Some of these positive signs are the stability of the cedi against major currencies as a first step to woo investors into the country and reduction of inflation rate from 40 to 36 per cent".
He said these are geared towards the creation of investment opportunities in order to create employment for the people especially the youth, in addition to good policies on health and education.
Dr Kwadwo Tutu, Senior Economic Affairs Officer of the ECA appealed to the government to review its policy on chanelling resources to rehabilitate the utility services.
He said due to the low incomes of the people and to enable them afford the high tariffs on water and electricity, the rehabilitation programme should be spread over a long period to reduce the burden on the people.
Dr Tutu said a major achievement of the government is the stability of the exchange rate of the cedi and urged government to take measures that would not hike the prices of goods and services.
On the Highly Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) initiative, Dr Tutu called on the government to involve the people in the preparation of the report on the consideration stage since they are the beneficiaries.