Speakers identify opportunities in northern regions

Accra, Dec. 13, GNA - Various speakers at the seventh dailyEXPRESS Breakfast series on Thursday identified several areas of opportunities that could be exploited by donor agencies and stakeholders in the three northern regions which would culminate in development. Some of the areas identified include tourism, mining, education, health, and agriculture.

Mr. Kofi Dokyi Ampaw, Chief Executive Officer of 2A Multimedia, said the northern regions served as a good investment field, especially the cultivation of soybeans, which had become a global commodity and was in high demand. He therefore called for policies and an enabling environment to ensure its massive cultivation.

Mr. Juan Costain, Financial Specialist of World Bank, noted that the regions were also good investment spots in terms of mining and tourism and added that the World Bank had spent huge sums of money in development projects in the north.

He called on stakeholders to strengthen the bond between institutions that provided funds for development, especially in the three northern regions to enable it to catch up with the rest of Ghana. Mr Bernard Monah, General Secretary of the People's National Convention, who read a communiqu=E9 on the Special Initiative for Sustainable Development in Northern Ghana, noted that a long-term development strategy for northern Ghana must be based on the principles of ownership, inclusive-growth in incomes and assets with particular reference to women and children, decentralization of power and budgets. He said a clearly defined set of priorities for rehabilitation of destroyed educational, social and infrastructure facilities based on real need assessment must also be incorporated into a comprehensive rehabilitation programme.

Mr Monah said participants further agreed that rehabilitation efforts should be linked to specific growth strategy that would enable people to sustain their livelihoods all year round, increase income and guarantee the needs and rights of the vulnerable.

The communiqu=E9 also called on Parliamentarians, civic society organisations and other stakeholders to complement government's efforts to pool additional resources from existing private and public funds in a manner that would reflect the greater needs for accelerated development in the north.

Mr. Stanislav Xoese Dogbe, Managing Editor of the dailyEXPRESS newspaper and organizers of the programme, said the programme was designed to afford stakeholders and development partners the opportunity to meet once every month to discuss issues of national concern. 13 Dec. 07