Regional Ministers Conference underway at Bolgatanga

Narration: Vice President John Dramani Mahama says despite the challenges chalked by the government over the past two and a half years, the economy still remain fragile and require more nurturing to make it robust and ready for economic take off. The major challenge, he lamented is in relation to the massive arrears the government had to clear including the TOR debt, while at the same time managing the implementation of the new universal salary structure, which he further indicated has exerted a major upward movement in government’s wage bill and by extension, a significant increase in government’s budgetary expenditure. The Vice President announced this at the opening of the 4th Regional Ministers conference held at Bolgatanga on the theme: “Towards Better Ghana Agenda –The Role of Regional Ministers in Concretizing manifesto promises”. Correspondent Isaac Asare and Abraham Dimmie have the rest of the story for Radio Ghana.
CUE IN
END CUE
ANCR V/O








Report


Vice President Mahama said government has been able to lay a solid foundation for the economic take off of the country as witnessed in various sectors of the economy. He said though the NDC government inherited a huge debt from the previous administration, it was able to undertake prudent economic management and sound fiscal policies to put the economy back on track. He explained that the micro economic situation when the NDC government assumed office has deteriorated and this reflected in all micro economic indicators. This, he noted resulted in economic imbalances which reflected in weak public finances, high inflation and depreciated foreign exchange rate among other economic challenges The cash fiscal deficit in 2007 widened from 9.2 percent of GDP in 2007 to almost 15 percent of GDP in 2008, whilst the rate of inflation shot up to 20 .7 percent in June 2009 as against 18.1 percent recorded by the end of 2008. The trend of inflation continued until it reached a peak of 20.7 percent in June 2009. It is in this vein, that government employed prudent financial management to reduce inflation from 20.7 to 8.39 percent, with the cedi experiencing relative stability of the exchange rate. Mr. Mahama recounted that the economy over the years has seen significant increase in domestic revenue mobilization, and revealed that government’s focus will continue to be on strengthening revenue mobilization, whilst expenditure control remains a key on the agenda for 2011. He charged the Regional Ministers to critically examine government’s policies and programmes and come out with recommendations for consideration. According to him the periodic regional minister’s conferences are meant to review performance within the contest of government programmes and policies, thus the need for them to share experiences and strategize on how they can successfully execute the better Ghana agenda. Mr. Mahama moreover appealed to all Ghanaians to support government in its quest to improve the lives of the people and mentioned the Savannah Accelerated Development Authority, SADA, and government subsidy on fertilizer as some of the interventional measures that are being vigorously pursued to enhance the living standard of the people, particularly the rural poor. Mr. Mahama also used the occassion to appeal to Party executives to ensure that grievances in the rank and file of the NDC party are resolved peacefully through respect and dialogue. The Chairman of the Conference of Regional Ministers, Mr. Joseph Amenewode, who is also the Volta Regional Minister described the level of development in the reign of the NDC administration as unprecedented and urged his colleagues to be proud for being part of the success story. He disclose that issues raised at the previous conferences had been tackled whilst others are being looked upon and charged the ministers to play their individual roles effectively by contributing their quota to the attainment of the objectives of President Mills. The Upper East Regional Minister, Mark Woyongo, touched on a numbers of developmental projects being undertaken under the Better Ghana Agenda and attributed it to the sense of commitment of the NDC government. He was grateful to the Ministry of Local government and expressed the hope that the outcome of the meeting would be desirable in achieving the better Ghana agenda. Meanwhile, Vice President John Dramani Mahama accompanied by other Ministers of state among other dignitaries took turns to inaugurate two projects in the Kassena Nankana West District. First was at Nabango, where he cut sod for the completion of an ICT centre for the chiefs and people of the area at the cost of GCH¢64,000 and further commissioned an ultra modern state of the art Eye Clinic at Chiana also at the cost of GH¢140,000.
END