Mr. Robert Ahomka-Lindsey, Chief Executive of the Ghana Investment Promotion Centre (GIPC), on Friday said the centre was in the process of scaling up the enforcement of laws and regulations guiding foreign investors and businesses on the local market.

He noted that the law was emphatic about the fact that foreign investors should not be allowed to do direct selling on the local market but a number of foreigners were violating the law.

Mr. Ahomka-Lindsey made the remark at a press conference to present the third quarter investment report to journalists.

"There has been a laxity in the enforcement of the law for too long. I think it's about time we scaled things up to ensure some sanity in the system," he said.

He said the centre was currently recruiting more staff to ensure sanity in the system, adding that, the intention was not to weed out those investors but to ensure that they abided by the law.

"Our job is not to police investors and kick them out for wrong doing but to ensure that they comply with the rules and regulations of the game and nothing will stop us from scaling up our efforts to enforce the law to the letter," he said.

Statistics available at the GIPC indicated that this year alone, 17 such companies, some of which were not properly registered, were closed down. However, 12 had been re-opened within the last quarter while five remained closed.

The violating organizations were mainly from China, India, Germany, Holland and Nigeria.

Mr. Ahomka-Lindsey noted that some of the companies were violating the requirement of how many expatriate staff they should employ, saying that, investors who brought in between US$10,000 to US$99,000 were allowed only one expatriate staff, $100,000 to $499,000, two expatriates and four for 500,000 and above.

"Any company seeking to employ extra expatriate hands must prove to us that they can't find local people who have the kind of expertise they are looking for," he said, adding that companies were also required to seek approval from the Centre in the event of the replacement of current expatriate staff.

Mr. Ahomka-Lindsey said the centre was also seeking an upward revision of the minimum initial investment capital for foreign investors from the current US$300,000 to one million dollars.

"We have put our proposal before Parliament and we are hoping that by the close of the year we would be granted the mandate to raise the bar.
He said as part of measures to make the GIPC more effective and accessible to investors and the general public, plans were afoot to open more regional offices, international offices, recruiting sector specific personnel to boost staff numbers from 57 to 108 and also updating staff of foreign missions on investment promotion's best practices.

"We are also seeking a complete revision of the GIPC Act and also planning to relocate the Centre to its own office at the Airport residential," he said.


Source: GNA