The Southern Volta Development Forum, a non-governmental organization committed to the improvement of the economic potential of the Southern Volta Basin and the Volta Region as a whole, is set to organize a day’s forum to discuss at full length, the need for immediate private sector and governmental intervention in the area. To be held on Thursday the 19th of May at the British Council in Accra, the forum according to the NGO, would seek to among other interests deliberate on how to maximize and explore to full use, the economic viability of the area, to improve the local economy, create jobs, reduce poverty and stem the increasingly rural-urban drift of the youth from Southern Volta to the nation’s capital, Accra. It would be held under the theme “Economic and Business Potentials of the Southern Volta Basin”. Topics to be discussed would hinge on oil and mineral exploration, tourism, agriculture and the industrial potentials of the region. A representative of the Minister of Youth and Sports Clement Kofi Humado would deliver a paper on the concept and plans being put in place for the establishment of a Southern Volta Basin Development Authority (SVBDA). It would be preceded by a presentation on “the merit and roadmap for establishing a special planning area for the development of the Southern Volta” by Dr. Tay of the National Development Planning Commission. According to the organizers, the forum became necessary since the area comprising six administrative districts - the Keta Municipality, Ketu South and North District, Akatsi District and the Tongu Districts - are ‘gold mines’ waiting to be explored, and believe that the forum would open the investment opportunities there to the local and international business community. The Southern Volta Development Authority would also use the forum to bring together all the pressure groups working for the interest of the area as one united front to lobby the government and other appropriate quarters for a better Southern Volta. The SVDA has hinted that elections to elect officers to lead the group would be held during its second forum.