The government has won the hearts of development partners for the country to continue enjoying Official Development Assistance (ODA), which is normally concessionary lending to the country. The Vice-President, Mr John Dramani Mahama, who made the case for the country, said although Ghana was on track to producing oil in commercial quantities at the end of the year and re-categorise her economic status to a middle income one, revenues from the oil flow would not be a panacea for the immediate transformation of the economy. Speaking at a high level meeting of government officials and senior directors from Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) and development partners in Accra yesterday, Mr Mahama said although the oil flow would increase Ghana's Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth rate to 15 per cent in 2011 from the 6.5 per cent projected for the year, the growth would later return to the region of eight per cent, to require more ODA inflows to help grow and diversify the economy. "There is significant opportunity for mobilising fiscal space from oil and gas revenues for sustainable economic growth. However, we must appreciate the fact that these revenues are unlikely to transform the country's status immediately. Ghana would still very much require the support of its development partners to achieve the 'Better Ghana' agenda," the Vice-President stated. The Consultative Group Meeting brought together Government Ministers, senior level officials of MDAs, bilateral and multilateral development partners, Civil Society Organisations and the media to discuss issues such as the draft Medium-Term National Development Policy Framework and the Ghana Shared Growth and Development Agenda (GSGDA), which sets out the country's development priorities and strategies for 2010-2013. The Vice-President called on the donor community to partner the government to manage the expectation of Ghanaians by giving out more resources to develop infrastructure and make other areas equally lucrative to diversify the economy. He said the government was capable of managing the transition into a middle-income status as it had demonstrated by bringing remarkable stability into the ailing economy it inherited in 2009, with high inflation and unprecedented fiscal and balance of payments deficits. "The transition will be difficult but our delivery on the economy so far shows that we can rise to the occasion," Mr Mahama stated, stressing that "we have restored the health of the economy and we are poised for rapid growth". The Co-chair of the group representing the Development Partners, Mr Ishac Diwan, said the donor community agreed with the government's position for increased and more concessionary loans, saying issues had been discussed very frankly and honestly at the meeting. Mr Diwan said to the extent that the oil could become a curse to the country, it was the view of the donor community to continue to support the country to deliver the other supporting infrastructure that would make the oil deliver the best results. He said the development partners also reckoned with the fact that the country needed to perform even much better on the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and build infrastructure to open the economy wider to absorb bigger investments and would, therefore, continue to assist. He noted that they had also agreed not to impose conditionalities on the country but use the country's own systems to deliver aid and where necessary develop more efficient mechanisms to enable Ghana to mobilise resources from all sources. Source: Daily Graphic