Ghana Investors' Advisory Council calls for reforms

The Ghana Investors' Advisory Council (GIAC) on Friday called for accelerated structural reforms in five key areas to make Ghana an attractive investment destination and a more competitive environment for existing and new local and foreign investors.

These areas were Agriculture and Agri-business, Customs and Civil Service Reforms, Financial Reforms, Labour and Land reforms.

The call was made in a communique issued at the end of the one-day Third Meeting of the Council in Accra and read by Mr Kwamena Bartels, Minister of Private Sector Development.

It was attended by 27 out of the 30-member Council made up of business executives, including nine international participants, Ministers of State, representatives from government, private sector, donor agencies and the diplomatic corps.

In their consultative working groups, the participants worked informally with sector ministers to formulate strategies and quick win action points to drive home set targets.

The Council also made proposals to improve the measurement and accountability in the Civil Service and streamline further the customs clearing procedures.

It stressed the need to identify and re-classify the different categories of land and to speed up the financial services sector reforms including Off-shore banking.

During the Council's second meeting also held in Accra last November, the Council identified five key areas that required transformation.

These were, are Agribusiness, Land, Banking, Customs Procedure Reforms and Labour.

The Council is a small, high-level and informal advisory group, chaired by President Kufuor and comprised top-level corporate executives, who would assist to increase understanding between government and companies driving investments.

It includes top-level executives of foreign and Ghanaian businesses such as CMS Energy Company, ECOBANK, Heineken, Ashanti Goldfields Company (AGC)as well as individuals from the private sector.