Let us have collective national economic vision - John Mahama

Kumasi, April 18, GNA - Mr John Dramani Mahama, the running mate of the NDC presidential candidate, has said there was a need for a national consultation to fashion out an achievable economic policy that would serve as a collective vision for the country towards its desire to reach middle income status.

He said there was the need for whoever won elections to create a platform that would harness the expertise and experiences of all Ghanaians irrespective of their political, religious and ethnic affiliation to fashion out a vision for the nation.

In an interaction with the media in Kumasi on Thursday as part of his tour of the metropolis, Mr Mahama said the situation where losers in elections were prevented from participating in the running of the affairs of the country should be a thing of the past.

"The vision of the country should not be the vision of only one party. There is the need for whoever won elections to create opportunities for all Ghanaians to participate in the national development process", he said.

He said lack of access to capital, entrepreneurial skills and continuity had been the bane of the private sector in the country. Mr Mahama said the focus of the NDC government would be how to grow the small and medium scale industries by creating opportunities for easy access to credit facilities, entrepreneurial training and marketing opportunities.

"Urgent attention will be given to the agricultural sector to ensure sustainable food security."

On the bloated electoral register in some constituencies in the Ashanti Region, Mr Mahama said there was the need for transparency in dealing with the issue.

He said the committee set up by the Electoral Commission (EC) to investigate the problem should come out clean and tell Ghanaians how it had dealt with it.

Mr Mahama said Ghanaians had trust in the EC and that trust should be sustained and built upon to ensure free, fair and acceptable election results in 2008.

He said the Ghanaian electoral system had unique processes which prevented unnecessary controversies on election results and there was the need for the EC to ensure that the problem which occurred in some constituencies in the 2004 elections were not repeated in this year's election.

Speaking on the party's relationship with the media Mr Mahama said certain wrong perception had been created that the NDC was anti-media. However, he said the NDC was a friend of the media and would do everything to collaborate effectively with the media to ensure that the party achieved successes and that he would create the environment for the media to access information about the party.

Mr Mahama pledged to ensure a peaceful and clean campaign and appealed to other political leaders to mount their campaigns on issues that would help promote peace and unity.