British MPs end tour

A six member British parliamentary delegation on Saturday ended a seven-day duty tour of some parts of the country to assess the impact of their development support in the country.

The delegation led by Hon. Tony Baldry, Chairman of the International Development Steering Committee that toured some parts of the Western and Northern Regions said the team was impressed with the use of British support to alleviate poverty.

During interaction with the media, the delegation expressed dissatisfaction with the lack of agro-processing industries in the country to add value to raw products, which they said was "an affront to wealth creation among the people."

The team leader said it was unfortunate that iron was shipped at very low prices to Belgium only for it to be processed into cables and resold to Ghana at high cost. The importation of canned tomatoes from Italy even though the country had the capability of processing for the domestic market and export was another area of concern for the team.

Mr Baldry urged the government to concentrate on wealth creation among the people to reduce poverty by empowering them to expand their horizon in marketing. "You have to help community local groups to link up to the bigger world."

He urged the government to invest more in education as the key to development in every society. Mr Baldry commended the improvement in the delivery of basic health services, which they described as very encouraging, adding that other social development programmes seem to be on track.

On the Northern region, the delegation called for support for civil groups working in that part of the country to reduce poverty. The delegation was impressed about measures instituted by the Wassa West District Assembly to check environmental pollution as a result of mining in the area. The other members of the group were, Tony Worthington, Tony Cocman, John Battle, Andrew Robathan and Hugh Baycey.