Liberalisation will not kill local companies - Minister

Accra, July 4, GNA - Government on Friday said it was working out modalities to ensure that local industries were revived and supported in spite of the liberalisation of the economy. Mr Ishmael Ashitey, Minister of State for Trade, Industry and President's Special Initiative, said government was putting together strategies to streamline policies such as tariff and non-tariff programmes in order to resuscitate dying industries. The Minister said this when he paid a visit to Latex Foam Rubber Products, Fan Milk Limited and Promasidor Ghana Limited, producers of Cowbell Milk. It is part of government's initiative under the Rural Enterprise Development Programme (REDP) to assist the growth of local industries in the country.

Mr Ashitey said the package included the establishment of an export-oriented industrialisation through the promotion of local raw materials. "There is the need to encourage our farmers to venture into the production of raw materials needed by local industries. It is very easy to deal with local industries in the system than to build new industries. So we have to look at the tariffs system to make sure they survive in spite of the competition," he said. Mr Ashitey mentioned education and training for human resources, and the award of sub-contracts to small-scale industries, as some of the government's programmes under the initiative.

Mr Aid Laba, Chairman, Latex Foam Rubber Products Limited, said currently the company's production capacity stood at 250 tonnes a month with 20 per cent of the total output being exported to countries in the sub-region. He said the company's market share on the local front constituted about 68 per cent. Mr Jonathan Ocansey, Human Resources Manager, Fan Milk Limited, complained about the delays in the clearance of raw materials at the ports, which, he said, fuelled their cost of production because of accumulated levies. On liberalisation, he said though competition was healthy, there was the need to look at it again in order not to cause the collapse of key local industries.

Mr S. De Bock, Acting Managing Director, Promasidor Ghana Limited said with a total production capacity of 250 tonnes a month, the company would soon start exports to the sub-region. He mentioned Nigeria as the main competitor in the sub-region saying "they offer 40 per cent subsidy to their manufacturers."