National identity summit to create and promote a unified brand image for the country is being held in Accra. Organised under the auspices of Brand Ghana Office, it brought together about 300 participants from government, business, civil society and promotional agencies to examine the theme: "Ghana in search of a competitive identity." The summit was categorised into a formal opening session and follow-up workshops with about 23 syndicate groups to explore areas in governance, business, investment and human development to generate a concept and build a consensus on what form of brand Ghana should take. Chief of Staff, Henry Martey Newman, who opened the summit, said the objective of the nation branding was built on the premise of deliberately creating a unique and competitive identity for the nation with the intention of positioning it internally and externally as a good place for trade, tourism and investment. He said Ghana should therefore, have a branded economic policy which all political parties should adhere strictly to irrespective of which party was in government. Such an economic blueprint should have a constitutional provision making it mandatory for successive governments to follow, he said, stressing that as a country, there was the need for a strategic focus on long-term solutions which would generate positive national perspectives. "Ghanaians must be assured of a policy of continuity in matters that bring development to the people," he said. Mr. Newman said this was realisable if Brand Ghana provided a common vision, which successive governments would replicate, deepen and wider, "similar to visions of entrepreneurs that outlast their founders". He said: ''The situation where some stakeholders in the country pursue their individual business interests and communicate their own image of the country independently of each other with little long term national strategy does not auger well for the overall development goal." Mr. Newman said stakeholders should be united by the nation's brand vision and shared values to work together and align their policy and acts to a common national strategy. The Brand Ghana initiative should not be treated as a political tool, he said. "We expect all stakeholders on board because government is committed to seeing Brand Ghana office transformed into an independent public - private partnership. "We must nevertheless recognise that government's commitment and best efforts are not enough for evolving an independent and effective Brand Ghana Officer since civil society, community leaders, education managers and the general population need to integrate and harmonise efforts towards achieving the envisaged success," he said. Mr. Newman said only countries with the ability to tackle confidently the extraordinary diverse market place with clear, credible, appealing, distinctively and thoroughly planned national identity strategy could compete and win. "Competing to win is about acquiring culturally grounded differentiation, premised on strong national vision and shared values as well as effective and coherent projection and communication to targeted stakeholders," he said. Mr. Mathias Akotia, Chief Executive Officer of Brand Ghana, said national branding had become a strategic tool and process used to ensure competitiveness, because having a reputation or none at all seriously impacts on a country's ability to compete at all levels. He said sometimes people in their ignorance tended to question the prudence and appropriateness of branding a nation with the argument that such an initiative would lead to the creation of more jobs and wealth creation. "These reflect the enormity of work ahead in generating intellectual cooperation and commitment for the Brand Ghana development among the population," he said. Mr. Akotia pointed out that nation branding was not new saying that "many countries have promoted their identities for different reasons to be able to attract international attention. "An example was South Africa which, in realising a gap between the international perception and the reality of the country, launched the Brand South Africa project which has correctly positioned it". He said India, Malaysia, Egypt, Costa Rica, New Zealand and many more countries also had active nation branding programmes in spite of the existence of state institutions, such as investment, tourism, exports and public diplomacy dedicated to country product, services and reputation promotions. Mr. Akotia said at this time of Ghana's development there was the need to take time off to soberly reflect and consider the national values. "It is time for us to lay aside our ethnocentric and political alliances to drill deep into our common heritage of nationhood to espouse a single representative national identity that respects and unite our cultural diversity, making us truly one people." Source: Ghanaian Times