GOVERNMENTS all over the world, including those in advanced countries, travel extensively to attract foreign investment because internal resources are not enough to drive the required development process to help improve the standard of living of their people.
But while governments look for resources from outside, they also look within for what can be obtained locally to propel the development agenda of their countries.
In recent times, the catch phrase in the new development paradigm is ‘the need for local content in every development initiative’, be it in the telecommunications industry, ICT or oil and gas.
Our traders travel to the Far East to import all kinds of goods, such as textiles, electrical and building materials because prices are cheaper in those countries.
The Daily Graphic will not advocate that Ghana becomes an island onto itself or adopts autarky, but it is absolutely necessary that as we seek partnership in promoting our development agenda, we should equally recognise the potential and opportunities available locally.
We shall always continue to remind Ghanaians about the good old days of the 1960s when Ghana produced most of its needs, albeit at lower quality compared to imported items, even though the then government and its people were determined to succeed.
Majority of our people were aware of the limitations of the late President Nkrumah’s import substitution policy because his government initiated the industrialisation policy before introducing the policy to produce raw materials locally.
Again, because we missed the local content in our industrial policy, it was difficult to sustain the industrialisation drive when the country was confronted with foreign exchange difficulties and other economic challenges in the 1970s.
Today, many of the industries established in the 1960s in the country have become warehouses for cheap imports.
The Daily Graphic has always taken a stance against unbridled liberalisation because it has the potential to kill local initiatives.
We think that in areas that the country has comparative advantage, the government should take a firm stand to encourage local entrepreneurs to invest in the economy.
It is for this reason that we endorse the 30-day ultimatum given by the President to telecommunications operators to print their scratch cards locally. We believe that the local capacity exists for the printing of scratch cards and we urge the government not to relent in this regard because the telecommunications industry has the potential to provide job opportunities for majority of the people.
Telecom companies are big-time businesses with big turnovers and they should be interested in growing the local economy so that our people can be empowered economically to patronise the services of those companies.
This goes to buttress the directive that telecom companies print their scratch cards locally to give jobs to our people.
The Daily Graphic urges the government not to listen to any excuses from the telecommunications operators that the capacity does not exist locally because this refrain has been used to undermine bold efforts in the past to create employment opportunities and grow the economy.
The efforts to make local content part of the development agenda is not going to be easy because of resistance from those benefiting from the status quo.
The implementation of the local content initiative as part of the paradigm shift will be fraught with many challenges, but we think the opportunities and benefits will boost our development agenda.
We all need to support the government in this campaign to create jobs for local entrepreneurs.
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