President John Agyekum Kufuor on Thursday gave a healthy assessment of the State of the Nation saying on the balance, the political, economic and social conditions showed that "Ghana, the Black Star of Africa, is on the rise again". Delivering the address to Parliament, he said: "This should make all of us nationals happy about the various contributions and sacrifices we have made, individually and collectively to bring the nation this far." President Kufuor noted that the obvious challenge now was how to accelerate the development for the betterment of the entire society. He said this appreciation should strengthen the resolve of the people to work together in overcoming existing problems and drawbacks like the energy crisis, pockets of conflict arising mainly from chieftaincy disputes, low salaries, wages and productivity with their attendant high unemployment and the impact of globalisation on socio-economic development programmes. "Mr Speaker, it is within our power to overcome most of these challenges in the short to medium term," he said. "That is why we Ghanaians must will ourselves to work harder than we have ever done in the past 50 years," he added in reference to the Golden Jubilee celebrations. President Kufuor said fortunately, the country's path was benchmarked by the national vision of attaining a middle income status through a growth rate of eight percent GDP annually, which translated to over 1,000 dollars GDP per capita income within the next decade. He noted that this vision coincided with the Millennium Development Goals set by the UN to reduce global poverty by half by 2015. "Ghana is therefore not alone, like a long distance runner in search of a better life. Our task is made lighter in the knowledge that there are other nations around the world being encouraged and assisted by the international community to move alongside us in the same direction in overcoming these challenges." President Kufuor said the government was determined to consolidate and build on the achievements made so far and to turn the massive tide of goodwill that Ghana was enjoying worldwide to maximum advantage to facilitate this undertaking. He said the critical mid-term analysis was coinciding with the Golden Jubilee thus reinforcing the need for government and the entire society to engage in stock taking and resetting of national vision and goals for advancement. The Minority NDC MPs were absent from the sessional address as they had decided to boycott Parliament to protest the 10-year jail term handed the MP for Keta, Dan Abodakpi by an Accra Fast Track High Court for causing financial loss to the state. Source GNA