Ghana cannot succeed in her quest to become an industrialised country without the full support and participation of her Diaspora citizens, Mr Alan Kyerematen, the Minister of Trade and Industry has said.
“Beyond the remittances you send back home to support your families, Diasporans have increasingly become a great source of capital, creativity, entrepreneurship, technology, and knowledge transfer,” he said.
Mr Kyerematen was speaking at the Ghana Diaspora Public Affairs Collective (GHPAC) inaugural Golden Gala Awards and Symposium in Washington DC in the United State of America.
The GHPAC is a nonpartisan, and non-profit social welfare advocacy dedicated to empowering Ghanaians in the Diaspora through civic and political action that can be instrumental in helping Ghana achieve her industrial transformation goal.
He said it was an incontestable fact that no country had developed without industrialisation and that it was, therefore, not by accident that the ten largest economies in the world– the United States, China, Japan, Germany, United Kingdom, India, France, South Korea, Italy and Canada – were also the most industrialised economies
“Industrialization is, therefore, the engine of economic development. We are fully convinced that Ghana cannot succeed in her quest to become an industrialised country without the full support and participation of her Diaspora citizens,” he said.
Mr Kyerematen said Ghana and the United States had enjoyed long standing fraternal relations dating back several decades which were deeply rooted in the economic, political, and cultural ties between the two countries.
The bonds of friendship between the two countries had manifested in the increasing number of American businesses operating from Ghana and many Ghanaians involved in strategic partnerships with their American colleagues and counterparts.
He said the government’s strategic approach to harnessing the capabilities and network of Ghanaians in the diaspora was based on a number of considerations, including improving the business environment; enhancing the productive capacity of Small and Medium Scale Enterprises (SMEs) to produce for both export and local consumption; providing fiscal and non-fiscal incentives for manufacturing; and improving access to foreign markets.
The Minister said in pursuit of the strategic objectives, the Government had since the year 2017 been aggressively implementing numerous interventions as part of its Industrial Transformation Agenda aimed at making Ghana the new manufacturing hub for Africa.
These include promoting One District One Factory (1D1F) Initiative, developing new Strategic Anchor Industries aimed at diversifying the Ghanaian economy beyond Cocoa and Gold, decentralising institutional support for SMEs through the establishment of Business Resource Centers (BRCs) and Business Advisory Centers (BACs) throughout the country and the development of Industrial Parks and Special Economic Zones around the country to provide access to industrial lands, dedicated source of electricity, water, telecommunication services , among others, for those interested in going into manufacturing.
Mr Kyerematen noted that, in spite of the current global economic challenges largely occasioned by the joint effects of the COVID-19 Pandemic and the Russia-Ukraine war, the Ghanaian private sector had stood resolute and continued to explore opportunities to expand their frontiers.
He, therefore, urged Ghanaians in the diaspora to partner their counterparts in Ghana to take full advantage of the market opportunities.
“The Government of Ghana will, therefore, continue to provide relevant support and incentives for such partnerships between Ghanaians in Ghana and their counterparts living in the diaspora,” he added.
