GHANA NEEDS RELIABLE FRIENDS (FEB 10)

SINCE the attainment of nationhood, Ghana has dealt with the international community at various levels. Our country is a member of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), the African Union (AU), the United Nations, among other groups.
Through this partnership, the country has received co-operation and support in various forms. The international community has sympathised with and supported us in our time of need and celebrated with us during auspicious occasions, such as the peaceful transitions from one elected government to another in 2001 and 2009.
But we are not particularly unanimous in our assessment of the Breton Woods institutions — the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF). Some of our compatriots believe that the Breton Woods institutions are the cause of our present economic predicament because their prescriptions have been out of tune with our realities.
Today, our local industries and agriculture have collapsed as a result of the importation of cheap substitutes because these institutions have prescribed a liberalised economic framework for our country, while permitting the Western world to protect their businesses.
These institutions, over the period, have painted different pictures of the economy at different times in our history. This development makes it difficult for the people to determine the direction of the economy.
It is for this reason that we welcome the call by the Vice-President, Mr John Dramani Mahama, on the Breton Woods institutions to present the true picture when analysing the economies of their partner countries.
He described as unacceptable the tendency on the part of the institutions to say one thing about the economy when a government was in power and another thing when a government was out of power.
The DAILY GRAPHIC believes that these institutions have an obligation to redeem their image in the wake of conflicting statements on the state of the economy by the World Bank.
Before Election 2008, these institutions painted a picture of the Ghanaian economy as being resilient and capable of withstanding the shocks of the global economic downturn.
Then, presto, the same institutions told Ghanaians in January that the economy was not doing well. Just as the path maker does not know where he/she had gone crooked, Ghanaians will cherish an objective assessment of the economy by the World Bank and the IMF.
Perhaps the time has come for our government to place more emphasis on relying on local initiative rather than the unfettered partnership with the Breton Wood institutions.
The partnership should go beyond the present master/servant relationship which is not mutually beneficial. These institutions can only be relevant in our present circumstances if they can help build local capacities in businesses to empower Ghanaians to take commanding heights in the economy.
The doors of Ghana are still open to those who want to do business with the country on equal terms, but we reject the present arrangement in which foreign interests are supported to kill our local industries and thereby throw more people onto the streets without jobs.