The President of the Ghana Institute of Architects, Mr Osei Kwame Agyemang, has advocated that the country should move away from measuring the economy by indices such as interest rates and inflation figures. Instead, he recommended that economic development should be measured by factors such as access to education, potable water, electricity, accommodation and sanitation facilities. Other indices of economic development, he argued, should be access to good roads with little or no congestion, which allows people to move freely, and a feeling of security among the people. Mr Agyemang told the Daily Graphic in Accra that an urban planner indicated that although a lot of attention was being focused by the government on reducing interest and inflation rates, "these often do not reflect in the quality of life of the larger population". "Without a place to call a home, no job, no or irregular water and electricity supply, vehicular congestion on virtually all roads in the capital among others, most Ghanaians are frustrated and the result is a latent tension waiting to explode," he said. He explained that the growth of a city was derived from what it offered its inhabitants in terms of basic facilities, which some countries with even larger populations than Ghana have been able to provide. He pointed out that as a country, "we have made absolutely no progress in improving the lives of the people", blaming the situation on lack of planning. "You have more people today sleeping on our streets and in kiosks; slums are emerging and growing at uncontrollable speed and very little is being done to integrate these people," he stated. According to Mr Agyemang, Ghana's developmental woes are compounded by the fact that the country did not have a strategic national policy which will guide its growth, especially in terms of infrastructural development. "As a nation, we should have planned another Korle-Bu by now", he added. According to him, it is the lack of a strategic plan that has plunged the nation into the present chaotic situation it finds itself where people hustle for accommodation and spend hours just to move from one direction to the other. The first strategic plan for the country was prepared in 1992, and this according to him was not only partially implemented but abandoned. "It was not even reviewed after the first five years as required till date", he added. "Nothing can happen without planning", he stressed and explained that it was for the same lack of planning that has caused the fast growth of Accra's rural setting; Accra's rural setting is now growing at a rate of 25 to 30 per cent per annum, a situation which Mr Agyeman described as very dangerous for the country. Sharing similar sentiments, a Director at COMPTRAN, Mr Frank Tackie, explained that "without a strategic plan, there is very little we can do". There must be a conscious, deliberate national agenda to develop for instance, Tamale and Takoradi to reduce attention on Accra, he stated and described as unfortunate the rate at which Accra's rural setting was being urbanised. "Accra must have a rural hinterland to for instance protect its culture". Source: Daily Graphic