The Eastern Regional Minister, Mr Yaw Barimah on Monday said the progress of the nation depended to a large extent on the hard work of Ghanaians. He therefore called for hard work from all to help sustain the modest economic gains made by the government. Mr Barimah, who was addressing the sixth Birim South People's Assembly at Akyem Oda, urged Ghanaians to reflect soberly on the state of the economy before the New Patriotic Party (NPP) government came into power. He said while interest rate was hovering around 52 percent in 2000 thus making borrowing from the banks unattractive, the rate of interest now is around 18 percent. "Inflation which was at 48 percent in 2000 is now down to 10 percent thus making life bearable to a greater number of people." Mr Barimah said when the government came into power in 2001 it took some unpopular decisions such as the increase in petroleum products but "we are now reaping the fruits of such harsh decisions". He said in terms of infrastructure development, "no government can surpass the achievements of the NPP government within its six years in power". Mr Frank Kwame Busumtwi, the Birim South District Chief Executive, said the introduction of the National Youth Employment Programme and its implementation in the area had created employment for the youth. He said the assembly, in collaboration with the Ministry of Trade, Industry and the President's Special Initiate, was in the process of re-activating the Oda Nkwanta Citrus factory. Mr Busumtwi said 51,358 people had registered for the District Mutual Health Insurance Scheme out of which 41,010 were enjoying the benefits of the scheme. During an open forum, the DCE told the gathering that an amount of 1.1 billion cedis disbursed to people under the Poverty Alleviation Fund was still outstanding. Source GNA