THE GUIDE

The Guide says the two-day national economic forum which was to have started sometime last week, will now take place on September 2 and 3, this year, because the National Democratic Congress (NDC) government is apparently uneasy about the active participation of the Ghanaian opposition. Under a front page headline: "NDC hijacks Accra Forum", the Guide says a release issued by the Ministry of Communications said the forum, to be opened by President Rawlings, is being organised under the auspices of the government and the National Development Planning Commission (NDPC). The paper says the first indication of some "tricks' is the manner in which USAID and the Private Enterprise Foundation (PEF) of Ghana have been dropped as co-sponsors, in addition to the Government of Ghana. It says the forum is supposed to be a follow-up to the June 1-6 Economic Conference in Chapel Hill, North Carolina in the United States. The U.S conference was sponsored jointly by PEF, Government of Ghana, USAID and Sigma One Corporation. According to the Guide, its sources in Washington have confirmed that the reluctance of the government to allow the opposition to fully take part in the forum has greatly embarrassed the Director of USAID, Ghana, Mr Myron Golden and the head of USAID Programme and Project Development, Ms. Denise Rollins. GRI