The private sector has urged the government to remain focused and not take decisions that will throw the economy out of gear.

The private sector, the engine of economic growth, said although it was necessary for the government to spend, that should only be directed at areas where the funds were really needed.

The government needs to remain focused and spend only where it is necessary," the Managing Director of Barc1ays of Bank of Ghana, Mrs Margaret Mwanakatwe, said in Accra Tuesday at the first business roundtable with the government.

The Economist Conferences, a division of the Economist Intelligence Unit of the authoritative news magazine, The Economist organised the event.

It brought together the President, Mr John Agyekum Kufuor, key ministers as well as the Governor of the Bank of Ghana, Mr Paul Acquah face to face with the private sector and business community to dialogue.

Mrs Mwanakatwe, who was among the lead panelists at the conference, said the government, however, needed to spend on social services in order to open up the country's investment to make investment friendlier.

She said the agricultural sector needs a push for the private sector to cash in.

She called on the government to confront the issue of land tenure in the country which had to a large extent been a hindrance to investment in the country.

The Managing Director of Stanbic Bank Ghana Ltd, Mr Alhassan Andani, said the financial sector of the country was one of the strongest and needed to be strengthened more to take a global shape.

"Let us not look at our immediate surrounding. We should be thinking in the global sense," hestated.

Also a lead panelist, Mr Andani said the human resource base and capitalization of the financial system, particularly the banking sector, should be strengthened if Ghana was to take a lead role in the West African sub-region.

The Managing Director of Stanbic said the leap to making the country an International Financial Services Centre (IFSC) was a good step by the government as it had brought a lot of benefits to the industry .

He was impressed at the extent of work on regulatory framework and expressed the hope that by June next year the framework to make the country a true IFSC would be ready.

Mr Andani said Stanbic would be one of the financial institutions to operate an offshore banking facility in the country, but the timing would be fixed to fit Standard Bank's global business plan.

The Chief Executive Officer of the Ghana Investment Promotion Centre (GIPC), Mr Robert Ahomkah-Lindsay, said the country was focused and knew exactly where it was going.

He said the challenges were so myriad and colossal that a lot of efforts and steps were needed to improve things for the benefits to overwhelm the entire population.

"We are on a journey on the right course but we are not satisfied yet," he told a section of journalists at the business roundtable.

Mr Ahomkah-Lindsay said the country was doing a number of things to derive the best solutions and benefits for Ghanaians to enjoy.


Source: Daily Graphic