POSITIONING GHANA FOR OIL BOOM (JULY 23, 2009)

ONE of the key elements that attract investors to any country is political stability. Any country that is engulfed in political instability is not likely to attract the much needed investments.
For a country to attain meaningful development, both foreign and domestic investments are needed to create jobs and wealth to improve the lives of the people.
This country, for some time now, has enjoyed a high level of political, economic and social stability. The labour front has been stable and the political arena has not witnessed any crisis that will suggest to the outside world that the country is ungovernable.
These are the signals that investors look for in a country before investing their money there. In times past, sub-Saharan Africa was considered to be a high risk area for doing business. This is not the case now.
Foreign investors are now turning to the continent to do business here and that is a good sign.
At the opening of the Ghana Investment Forum in Accra yesterday, President John Evans Atta Mills made it clear that the government had drawn important lessons from conflict situations, especially from oil-producing countries.
He said an appropriate framework had, therefore, been put in place to insulate the country against the infractions associated with the emerging oil industry. That, according to the President, included the drawing up of legal and institutional safeguards to forestall chaotic situations that had characterised some oil-producing countries on the African continent.
Oil production in most African countries has been fraught with conflicts. We are all familiar with the situation in the oil rich Niger Delta region of Nigeria, home to Africa's biggest oil and gas industry. We know of kidnappings, the blasting of oil fields and hostage taking.
In The Sudan, the International Court of Justice has just redrawn the boundaries of that country's disputed oil-producing Abyei Region, ceding key oil fields to northern Sudan in a decision hailed as the resolution of a long-standing territorial conflict.
Oil rich Angola has also had its fair share of the oil conflict.
Ghana would not like to be in this situation where this God-given gift will be more of a curse than a blessing. We commend the government for the necessary steps it has taken so far to forestall such unpleasant situations where aggrieved groups will foment social unrest and agitation because they have been left out of the benefits from the oil revenue.
The assurance by the President to foreign investors, especially those in the oil industry, is very timely and appropriate and it will go a long way to assuage any fears that they will have at the back of their minds.
The DAILY GRAPHIC is convinced that the government wants to engage all stakeholders in constructive dialogue that will enhance the business environment in the country. The assurance by the President should not be taken as mere political talk but a commitment to best practices in the management of state resources for the benefit of all the people.
As a nation, we must take full advantage of the oil find and use the revenue to advance the cause of society.
The DAILY GRAPHIC hopes that foreign and domestic investors will take the assurance by the President seriously and work towards the common good of all Ghanaians.