Trade Ministry appeals to businesses not to go on strike
The Ministry of Trade and Industry has appealed to the business community to reverse their decision to embark on a strike on Wednesday, in order not to worsen the country’s economic condition.
A statement issued by the Ministry on Monday and signed by the Deputy Communications Manager, Nasir Ahmad Yartey, said that the Ministry recognized some of the grievances of the businesses community such as the high cost of business, the energy crisis, the Advance Shipment Information System (ASHI)and the Ghana Conformity Assessment Programme (G-CAP).
The statement said the Ministry was taking steps to address them by decongesting the harbour and reducing the number of operators there, fighting for the reduction of interest rates and promoting made-in-Ghana goods to enhance demand for local goods and employment.
The implementation of the G-CAP has also been suspended to allow make room for deeper stakeholder consultation as has often been done in the Ministry’s interventions.
The Ministry added that President John Mahama has outlined plans to fix the energy crisis and increase Ghana’s generation capacity by over 3,000 megawatts.
The Ministry noted that the strike was ill-timed as Ghana was making progress in “Ease of Doing Business” and “Attractiveness to Foreign Investment” rankings.
At this time, apart from affecting local customers, suppliers and stakeholders, the strike would also affect international business partners and cast a negative image for the country in international business circles.
Secondly, the strike comes in the wake of government’s successful negotiation with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and could be misconstrued as a disappointment with the success of the negotiation and an organized effort to cripple the economy.
“The Ministry of Trade and Industry wishes to appeal to the various commercial and industry groups to use all available channels of negotiations with relevant government agencies, rather than take actions that will reduce Ghana’s GDP growth, cause unemployment, dislocate various business and industry value chains and worsen Ghana’s economic prospects”, the statement said.
Source: GNA