Mr. Alan Kwadwo MKyerematen, the Minister-Designate for Trade and Industry made a number of pronouncements at his last ministerial vetting in January 2017.
Without mincing words, he gave deeper insights on the “TRANSFORMATIONAL AGENDA” which the government was going to embark on. This was garnished with the promotion of “made in Ghana Goods” as the center pivot of the agenda thereafter. Among other things he said that, his focus was on job creation, thus the “INDUSTRIAL TRANSFORMATION AGENDA”.
This, he said would be achieved by focusing on five main thematic areas. That is:
1. Enhancing the competitiveness of “Existing Local Industries”.
2. “One District, One factory”, that estimatedly was going to create massive employment all over the country by visionary projections.
3. Add value to our “natural resource base”.
4. Identify potential strategic “export commodities”.
5. Identify import substitution products to enhance our foreign exchange. He noted that government was then committed to working with the private sector to realize its vision of the “One District, One Factory” programme; and that there were a lot of good will from the private sector towards this particular programme.
His vetting brought to light, as the First Deputy Speaker (Hon. Joe Osei Owusu) said, that “The Transformation Agenda is heavily dependent on what your ministry is set to do” this means that the agenda to transform the Ghanaian economy has largely been underpinned on the hardwork of Hon. Alan Kyerematen and the competent team of people who assists his abilities to get the job done at the Trade Ministry.
Four years on, Hon Alan Kyerematen has been retained as Trade Minister and it would be indeed great at his vetting as he shares with the Vetting Committee of Parliament and for that matter Ghanaians, the steps, taken by his ministry to achieve the promises he made before and what new things to be expected this time round.
One thing we cannot ignore about Alan’s submissions, is the logical coherent manner with which he articulates his carefully crafted thoughts, thinking on his feet, as though he were reading a manual. Another promise that Mr. Kyerematen made at his last vetting was how he was going to work with the finance ministry to ensure that the EXIM bank lives up to its mandate of supporting the private sector.
It is believed that, this exercise has seen the light of day and the EXIM bank has as a matter of fact supported many businesses in Ghana to thrive than their beginning. We however expect to hear details of how the government of Ghana has worked hand in hand with the EXIM bank to provide funding and technical support to many Ghanaian businesses.
Furtherance to the earlier submissions, he spoke about how he was going to bring to life, the president’s vision, to reduce the levies at the port, cut some ancillary taxes and beat interest rates down.
Now, as he comes to meet Ghanaians again, we are optimistic as it were and has always been in his political space, anticipating his succinct details on how he’s going to align his transformational agenda to a more tangible policies and the modus for manifestation.
We cannot go without mentioning the recent trade agreement between Ghana and United Kingdom which was sealed by the man ALAN. Even though, many have read excerpts about how beneficial this would be for both Ghana and the UK, this vetting provides a platform for the man himself to tell Ghana what exactly we stand to gain from this agreement and recommended ways to position ourselves as a people or a nation to benefit from this agreement.
By: P.D Orchill – Accra
Email: pdorchill@gmail.com
