ONE drawback to efforts at improving the economies of developing countries is the reliance on primary products whose prices are dictated by the buyers in the Western world.
This is against the background that the main products of most economies, such as minerals, cash crops and non-traditional exports, are sold at low prices because they are not processed. If there is any value addition at all, it is done on a very limited scale.
In Ghana, for instance, gold, timber, cocoa and the non-traditional crops have not earned the country the desired revenue because large tonnes of these products are shipped to markets in developed countries without any effort at making them competitive.
It is recalled that in the First Republic, the Nkrumah government adopted the import substitution policy by establishing factories to process some of the country’s raw materials. However, that enterprise did not receive popular acclaim, as a section of society criticised the regime for not providing the raw materials base before setting up the industries.
As a result, many people have advocated a paradigm shift to a model that encourages the growth of the raw material base before calling on the investor community to establish industries to process the country’s minerals, cocoa and fruits.
The DAILY GRAPHIC is happy that, after years in the wilderness, some positive steps are underway to add value to the country’s raw materials.
As a country, we have not been able to take advantage of globalisation to penetrate the international market because, unlike producers in advanced societies who are provided subsidies in order to be competitive, our local producers compete on the international market with little or no state support.
The DAILY GRAPHIC, therefore, welcomes the $100 million investment by Cargill Ghana Limited to process cocoa beans into high quality cocoa liquor, butter and powder for the international market.
With this investment, Cargill has joined a group of investors to take advantage of the country’s investment climate to stimulate industrial growth and job creation.
Inaugurating the plant in Tema yesterday, President J. A. Kufuor spoke about his government’s determination to reform the public sector to make it more effective and supportive of the private sector to promote economic growth.
It is also instructive that the Cargill investment was the result of President Kufuor’s investment drive to Europe and the United States to woo investors to put their money into the Ghanaian economy.
As the President prepares to exit the seat of government, it is good that his legacy is yielding fruitful results, vindicating his economic diplomacy policy to engage his counterparts in the world to fashion out an economic partnership to transform Ghana’s economy.
The DAILY GRAPHIC commends the government and Cargill for the partnership to promote the growth of the cocoa industry, for more money for the government means increased income for cocoa farmers whose sweat and toil has sustained our economy even in hard times.
We also salute the decision of the management of Cargill to safeguard the safety of its workers in a liberalised environment where many investors have trampled on the rights of labour.
While the DAILY GRAPHIC welcomes efforts by the government to woo more investors into the economy, we call on it never to hesitate to show investors who abuse our hospitality the exit.
No comments:
Post a Comment