Kufuor inaugurates 165-billion-cedis plant

The government has embarked on a new industrial reform and accelerated growth agenda, President John Agyekum Kufuor, said on Tuesday.

This, he said, involved an export-oriented industrialisation drive and a comprehensive domestic market-oriented industrialisation programme. "Along these lines, carefully selected programmes and projects will be implemented to serve as strategic growth poles for the economy."

He said one of such programmes is an industrial sub-contracting and partnership exchange that seeks to facilitate out-sourcing of component products and non-core activities of large industries to small and medium scale enterprises (SMEs).

President Kufuor, who was inaugurating a 165-billion-cedi new state of the art packaging line plant of Guinness Ghana Limited (GGL), said the company could be one of the champions of this programme.

The new line which ranks among the best in Africa would increase the company's bottling capacity to 40,000 bottles per hour.

President Kufuor said Guinness Ghana has the potential to adopt, nurture and coach the SMEs to become part of its supply chain, providing goods and services competitively.

Through this, he said, "the SMEs will benefit from technology transfer, introduction of new quality management systems as well as guaranteed market whilst Guinness Ghana would benefit from competitive priced locally produced items."

The President said the Ministry of Trade, Industry and President's Special Initiatives (PSIs) would collaborate with the Association of Ghana Industries (AGI) to help select and support SMEs that can successfully integrate into the company's supply chain.

Touching on the company's expansion project, President Kufuor said it was a demonstration of continued faith in the present and future of the country's economy.

"As a government, we shall continue to pursue pragmatic macro-economic, industrial and trade policies that will ensure high returns for both local and foreign investors."

He said the thrust of the government's industrial policy is value-addition to local resources, particularly that of agriculture and the development of high quality and competitive products for the domestic and export markets.

President Kufuor said he was happy that Guinness Ghana has for the past years been pursuing efforts at using sorghum as adjunct in its brewing process. He said the success of "these efforts hold tremendous potential for transforming the rural economy of the northern regions where sorghum thrives." "The government will, therefore, support and complement the efforts of Guinness Ghana to promote the cultivation of sorghum for industrial application in the brewing industry among others."

Otumfuo Osei Tutu II, Asantehene, praised the company for its impressive record in education, health and sports promotion in the country.

Mr Devlin Hainsworth, Managing Director of Guinness Ghana, said the new line has helped to increase its workforce by 20 percent.

He described the investment as a visible sign of the vision to drive the company forward.

He commended the government for creating the necessary environment that made the investment possible.

Mr David Hampshire, Chairman of Diageo Africa, said 25 percent of its investment globally "is now going to Africa" and that Ghana is "part of this business."