The 2018 Budget and Economic Policy Statement would focus on implementing an Agricultural Marshall Plan that would complement and enhance the Planting for Food and Jobs initiative, Vice President Dr. Mahamadu Bawumia has revealed.

According to Dr. Bawumia, Marshall Plan would transform the structure of the Ghanaian economy through aggressive industrialization.

Speaking at the opening of the International Conference on the Political Economy of Economic Transformation, in Accra, Bawumia indicated that the government would abolish duties on agricultural products, processing equipment and machinery as part of its plans to build the sector.

“Agriculture will be a major source of well paid jobs, which will lift the majority of the people from poverty and create wealth for all” he noted.

“It would also support agribusiness start-ups, finance farming and agribusinesses, open up food basket in the northern parts of the country and Afram Plains, provide technical assistance and tax incentives, irrigation infrastructure and launch pension scheme for cocoa farmers,” he added.

Meanwhile government is embarking on an ambitious project that seeks to grow 20 indigenous companies into multinationals capable of competing globally within the next four years.

The companies which are expected to come from the country’s manufacturing sector aim at increasing the country’s competitiveness in the global manufacturing space and create jobs for the youth.