The Association of Ghana Industry (AGI) is pushing for a local content policy for the industrial sector to help boost the African Continental Free Trade Agreement next year.
According to the AGI, the success story of the local content in the Oil and Gas sector is worth emulating by other sectors.
The President of AGI, Dr Yaw Adu-Gyamfi, told government that anything short of a local content policy will affect the competitiveness of local industries.
Speaking at the opening of the Ghana Industrial Summit and Expo 2019, Dr. Gyamfi said: “Competitiveness for our economy has become an urgent need. For this reason, government must quicken its pace of industrial transformation through dedicated policies and incentives to bolster growth of our economy.”
He added that “these are crucial in strengthening local industry”.
This year’s event focuses on industry and the global market with the theme: “Strengthening Ghanaian Industries for Global Competitiveness”. It features various activities including, exhibitions, trade and investments fora, and business matchmaking among others.
While urging government to build local industry to a level where it can compete with the best on the continent, Dr. Gyamfi said improvement in macro-economic fundamentals, trade facilitation and infrastructure are equally important.
He said science and technology are also critical drivers for competitiveness and accelerated industrial growth, but added that the country is yet to fully integrate them.
Explaining further, he said: “Admittedly, we have not leveraged technology and the applied sciences sufficiently to enhance our competitiveness as a country.
“It is therefore important that we fully integrate these into our industrial processes. The standards and expectations of industry today are being driven by the competition we face from the global economy. Therefore, we need to rethink how we do business daily to align with emerging trends in technology, in order to become relevant to the global economy.”
Source: Ghana/Starrfm.com.gh/103.5FM/Osei Owusu Amankwaah
