Cabinet has approved the Industrial Policy which was developed by the Ministry of Trade and Industry. Ms Hannah Tetteh, Minister of Trade and Industry, who announced this, said what was left was the industrial support programmes to kick-start its implementation. A statement issued by the Ministry in Accra on Tuesday and signed by Nana Akrasi-Sarpong, Acting Director of Communications and Public Affairs, said Ms Tetteh was addressing the mid-year review workshop at Elmina. The two-day retreat was to enable the Ministry assess its performance for the half year and develop appropriate strategies for the rest of the year. Ms Tetteh said the Free Zones Act would be reviewed to conform to modern trends with the passage of a new Legislative Instrument (LI) to regulate the Free Zones. She noted that the previous LI which enjoined them to pay taxes after five years of operation had lost its usefulness because it had been more than 10 years since the commencement of operations. On Destination Inspection, the Sector Minister said five companies had been selected and would commence operations in September. Mr Mahama Ayariga, Deputy Minister of Trade and Industry, said a broad stakeholder workshop would be held at Tamale from September 1-2 to develop a comprehensive strategy to revive and make the cotton industry one of the major export sectors of the country. Alhaji Amadu Sorogho, Chairman of the Parliamentary Select Committee on Trade and Industry, lauded the Minister for providing the platform for the Committee to interact and exchange ideas with officials of the Ministry. However, he called on other Ministries to emulate the Ministry to enable Parliamentarians to exchange ideas with the Ministries for which they had oversight responsibilities. Alhaji Sorogho advised the Ministries not to wait until the approval of their budgets before they rushed to Parliament with their programmes. Source: GNA