BUILDING CAPACITY OF LOCAL FIRMS (JUNE 9, 2009)

THE Ministry of Education last week began a “mission” to assess the capacity of printing companies in the country. Mr Alex Tettey-Enyo, the sector Minister, and his entourage visited printing houses such as Graphic Packaging (G-Pak), a subsidiary of the Graphic Communications Group Limited, to ascertain the capacity of the companies to print all the educational materials needed to promote education in the country.
In the past, members of the Ghana Printers and Paper Converters Association (GPPCA) always complained about government policy that gave preferential treatment to importers of educational materials.
It is strange that whereas importers of educational materials do not pay tax on their materials, local printers are made to pay duties on imported raw materials. This discriminatory policy only makes local printers uncompetitive on the market.
The DAILY GRAPHIC is happy that the Mills administration is determined to reverse this trend. Indeed, Mr Tettey-Enyo said during his visit to G-Pak that the government intended to help printers in the country to increase their capacity and give employment to the youth.
Last year alone about $70 million was spent on printing textbooks outside the country.
For far too long our policy makers have found an alibi in the lack of capacity of local industries to deny them jobs and subsequently support the economies of other countries.
The DAILY GRAPHIC concedes that protectionism or the policy by the government to build the capacity of all local industries will come at some cost.
First, a restriction on imported items will lead to higher prices of locally produced goods because it will take some time for local industries to update their plants and machinery in order to produce cheaper local alternatives.
The Chinese say that “a journey of a thousand miles begins with the first step”. Therefore, Ghana cannot continue to postpone taking the important decision to support local industries to create jobs and wealth to enhance the national economy.
We know that this model of development will face challenges and possibly bring about social unrest because certain tastes and goods will disappear or their prices will become prohibitive. But it makes sense to adopt this policy option to support local industries because essentially nobody will grow our economy for us. The solutions to the challenges facing our economy must be home-grown.
The DAILY GRAPHIC, therefore, appeals to the business community, the banks and civil and public servants to support this initiative by the government to produce educational materials such as textbooks and other goods locally.
This way, we can create jobs and wealth and save the scarce foreign exchange that we spend on importing items that can be produced locally, sometimes at cheaper cost.
The DAILY GRAPHIC hopes that the policy will not be limited to the educational sector but will be extended to all spheres of national endeavour so that rice and poultry farmers and textile producers can be adequately resourced to produce substitutes to the cheap imports on the markets.