Concentrate on development issues - JAK to media

President John Agyekum Kufuor has asked the media to concentrate on issues that would improve the living standards of the people. He mentioned the economy; development of infrastructure, good governance and social issues as those that needed focusing on. President Kufuor made the call when addressing the second Press conference since he assumed the reign of office about 21 months ago at the Castle, Osu.

It is also a part of series of press conferences lined up for ministers to give accounts of their stewardship with which the Volta Regional Minister, Mr Kwasi Yeboa, has had his turn. The main context of the 40-minute address was on the economy, agriculture, social services, infrastructure, good governance and foreign relations. It also centred on politics and social issues.

Like at the first Press conference held on 18 April, last year, Vice President Aliu Mahama, Ministers of State, Parliamentarians and some executive members of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) flanked President Kufuor.

President Kufuor said the economy continued to pose the greatest challenge to the country and the government. He said although there had been substantial gains and general stabilization at the macro economic level, inflation and bank interest rates continued to fall and the currency had had a measure of stability.

President Kufuor said to stimulate growth, government has taken series of measures to strengthen the banking system and increase supply of long term capital that was available to agriculture and industry.

He said at the micro economic level, small-scale farmers and traders had been given credit and they borrowed at an annual interest rate of 20 per cent instead of the 100 to 200 per cent annually for short season from moneylenders.

President Kufuor said government expected about 75 million dollars in revenue from the divestiture programme this year and hoped it would increase within the next two years and substantial portions of the proceeds would be devoted to build up supply of capital available for industry.

He said government intended to continue to take measures to boost the supply of capital to the private sector, especially those involved in adding value to farm produce and natural resources and selling made-in Ghana goods to the global market.

President Kufuor said the Ministry of Private Sector Development had sourced for a 40 million-dollar facility to support the President's Special Initiatives (PSI) on Salt and Palm Oil production for export, while those in the citrus, pineapple and tomato-processing industry could access the facility.

He announced that about 326 billion cedis in arrears in the road sector had been paid to contractors, as well as arrears owed to the Social Security and National Insurance Trust (SSNIT) and electricity bills owed by the government.

President Kufuor said there had been much improvement in the agriculture sector with increased food production but the problem was with the marketing, processing and storage to ensure that farmers had good prices for their produce.

He said abandoned silos were being repaired and rented out for food storage in addition to the provision of credit facilities to private sector operators to modernise the marketing system to buy up and store against the lean season.

President Kufuor said work had begun on 20 of the secondary schools the districts chose for upgrading to the standard of the well-endowed schools. He said the supply of core textbooks to secondary schools had been achieved and by the end of December, this year, the ratio of core textbooks to students would be one-to-one.

On infrastructure for schools, President Kufuor said 20,000 out of the 50,000 basic schools that needed furniture had been supplied and the rest would be catered for by next June.

"About 3,000 classrooms had been rehabilitated and 500 units for teacher accommodation had been completed," he added. On Health, President Kufuor reiterated his appeal to health professionals to stay and help in the development of the country the stem the disheartening brain drain.

He said "it has never been the case that some people have come from outside to develop any country. Ghanaians must therefore resolve to stay and develop their country, no matter the sacrifice." President Kufuor said 42 out of the 110 districts had adopted health insurance schemes and that government would learn from the experiences in the districts to choose the most suitable models for implementation in the country.

He said the Efasu Barge had set sail from Italy and would arrive in Ghana on October 15 and when installed would ease some of the pressure on power supplies with its 125 megawatts of capacity.

President Kufuor said there was renewed investor interest in Ghana's petroleum resources and offshore agreements had been signed with four major prospecting companies.