A policy document to attract funding for the development of a modern automobile industrial centre in Kumasi will be launched on Thursday. The Suame Magazine Industrial Development Organization (SMIDO) is mobilizing political and traditional leadership for the formal adoption of the SMIDO-Otumfuo Industrial Centre project as a regional economic development initiative. The proposed industrial village project on a 1000 acre land in the Atwima Nwabiagya District of Ashanti is aimed at harnessing the potential of the Suame cluster-based light industrial area into a technologically advanced industrial hub in Ghana. The project has the prospects of benefitting from a multi-donor funding led by the Danish aid agency, DANIDA. SMIDO President, George Asamoah told Luv Business Report the project is intended to establish a globally competitive industrial centre to revive the economy of the Ashanti region. According to project consultant, Nyaaba Aweeba-Azongo the Suame Magazine is fast decaying due to increasing technological barriers with increasing drop-outs of artisan mechanics. “Currently two out of five taxi drivers in the Kumasi metropolis are drop-out artisan mechanics, with trading and galamsey absorbing 34.6% of artisan drop-outs. There is a startling proportion of 4.7% resorting to arm robbery as a desperate survival alternative”, he has stated. He said the culture of sympathizing with the fate of Suame Magazine must give way to policies and tangible development commitments and has therefore challenged traditional and political leadership to redeem the economic decline of Kumasi and Ashanti by adopting the project as a regional economic recovery project. “It is within this framework that SMIDO is presenting this policy barometer to awaken leadership consciousness and the general citizenry to share the cause in appreciating the critical economic-life saving demand of the project within the context of the region’s economy”, said Aweeba-Azongo.