The Chartered Institute of Marketing, Ghana has launched the 19th Annual Marketing Performance Awards at a ceremony in Accra. The event, which would be held on June 28, 2008, is on the theme: "Improving Work Ethos of Ghanaians - The Role of Strategic Marketing." Launching the awards, Mrs Josephine Okutu, National President of CIMG, called on individuals and businesses to make collective effort to build a vibrant and robust economy. She said, by making effort to attain international standards and being able to penetrate into the regional, continental and the global markets were important to accelerate the economic, social and political growth of the country. It is in this direction that the CIMG instituted the awards as a way of promoting growth of the national economy. On the discovery of oil, Mrs Okutu said Ghana should learn from the experiences of other oil rich African countries to ensure that the oil reserves were exploited using sound environmental practices. In addition, the concerns of the local population should be addressed to forestall any confrontations with the government. "By so doing, Ghana will have the opportunity of using her resources to develop the nation into a hub for finance, industry and tourism, among others," she said. Mrs. Okutu said the CIMG had already positioned itself to contribute towards making the country the pride of Africa. Mrs Felicity Acquah, Managing Director of EXIM Guaranty, who delivered an address on the theme of the awards, stressed the importance of character formation in the development of work ethos. She said it was important to make investment in human skills and character and to remove such traits as old boyism, family connections, politicization of ideas and reward for non-performance to enhance the work ethos. She asked for the education policies and standards for character formation taking into cognisance development models, social charter and the best practices in the developed world. The awards will be in 26 categories. They include Marketing Man of the Year, Marketing Woman of the Year and Marketing Student of the Year, Product of the Year and the Agro-Based Company of the Year. Source: GNA