The Deputy Minister of Trade, Industry, Private Sector Development and Presidential Special Initiative, Madam Gifty Ohene-Konadu, has called on Ghanaians to help government reverse the trend of the HIV/AIDS menace to consolidate efforts to build the human resource base of the country. She said overcoming the menace was an absolute prerequisite for achieving the nation’s economic development goals. She was speaking at the annual Hall Week celebration of the Amanianpong Hall of the University of Education, Winneba, Asante-Mampong Campus. The celebration was on the theme: “HIV/AIDS, A Threat to Ghana’s Human Resource Development.” She noted that quantity and quality of the human resource of every nation was a key to its development, stressing that countries like Japan, Singapore and Malaysia with limited natural resources have become economically and politically powerful because they have developed a solid human resource base. The Deputy Minister said the government has not only recognized the importance of human resource development but was also committed to the continued development of both the current stock of human resource and new ones. This, she said, was clearly demonstrated by the various strategic programmes that are being pursued in the educational sector and the prominence to human resource development in the Ghana Growth and Poverty Reduction Strategy (GPRS) document. The Hall President, Mr Michael Frempong, called on the government to augment the quantum of funds allocated for non-traditional agricultural projects of the University. He pointed out that globally, the economies of most developing countries hinged on agriculture and that underscored the fact that sustainable agriculture was indispensable in a country like Ghana. Source: GNA