Mr Alan Kyeremanteng, the Minister for Trade and Industry, has said government will establish a $2 billion industrial development fund to provide medium to long term financing support to people to engage in manufacturing and production.

He said the fund formed part of the government’s three key transformational agenda of supporting the private sector, to help accelerate development and boost productivity.

Mr Kyeremanteng said this at the opening of the five-day Eastern Region Trade Fair and Exhibition held under the theme: ‘’ Brand Eastern for Export’’ at Koforidua.

He said government would provide a stimulus package to assist existing companies facing operational challenges, but are potentially viable and are looking for financial assistance.

Mr Kyeremanteng said government would refocus the operations of the National Investment Bank so that it concentrates more on financing industrial development.

He said the motive behind the ‘’One District One Factory (1D1F)” policy is to ensure that every district adds value to its natural resource endowment.

This, he said, will create employment opportunities across the country, help reduce the rural urban migration, minimize the importation of foreign goods and drive the desire for citizens to patronize local products as well as export local products for foreign exchange.

He said government in the next 50 years intends to diversify the export commodity of the country, adding ‘’ we are looking at new anchor industries such as the petro-chemical industry, the iron and steel industry, bauxite and aluminum industry and many others ‘’.

Mr Eric Kwakye Darfour, the Eastern Regional Minister, said the fair seeks to provide the avenue to identify and address the challenges facing the economic sectors where the region has a comparative advantage.

He said so far over 30 proposals have been received in the region with regards to the 1D1F policy from interested parties and the region is liaising with the Ministry of Trade and Industries and the 1D1F Secretariat.