May Day Celebrated

Today was observed as MAYDAY throughout the country. In Accra it took the form of a major workers' rally at the Independence Square. The President delivered the keynote address.

The theme of the celebration this year was "Developing Democracy: The role of the TUC."

The Secretary General of the TUC, K, Adu Amankwa in his welcome address congratulated the government for its labour friendly postures to date, but also called the government's attention to low wages, high costs of living and other socio-economic problems. He also said the TUC would hold the NPP to its campaign platform.

In his address, the president defended his government's decision to go HIPC and said the statistics clearly pointed in that direction. He paid tribute to the TUC for its understanding when the government was compelled to increase the price of petroleum products as well as increase the tariffs for utilities. He called on the TUC to be partners with the government to help accelerated economic development, as the "Far Eastern Tigers" did and in just one generation, rose to the level of middle to high-income countries.