"We will be prudent with the economy"- government has said

Story: Boahene Asamoah

THE government has said that it is going to ensure prudent management of the economy next year in order not to throw away the gains so far made.
Speaking at a forum on Budget Submission and Input in Accra yesterday, a Minister of State at the Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning, Dr Anthony Akoto Osei, said “in an election year, the government is not going to be populist or conservative”, adding that it was going to pursue prudent economic management of the economy.
He, however, said while pursuing prudent economic management, the government was not going to ignore its commitment to provide the requisite infrastructure in the country’s quest to attain a middle-income status.
Dr Osei said the country, for instance, needed about $4.5 billion to support the energy sector and said support from the country’s development partners was not adequate, hence the government’s intention to borrow from the international financial markets.
Focusing on the upcoming budget, the minister said there was not going to be any radical changes in the budget statement but stated that the government would focus on pursuing policies that had not been addressed in the previous budget statements.
“It is not prudent to add on to existing policies. We should rather take stock of the previous policies and pursue them,” he said.
Touching on the much talked about sale of the Agricultural Development Bank (ADB), Dr Osei said the government had not yet taken a position on the sale and assured the gathering that it would make its decision known at the appropriate time.
In her contribution, the Executive Secretary of the Ghana Employers Association (GEA), Mrs Rose Karikari Anang, commended the government for taking the initiative to take stock of its policies since 2001.
She said the association had proposed that the government take immediate steps to check what she termed “counterfeit trade”, since it hurt local industries, as well as deprived the country of the needed revenue for development.
On the energy sector, she stated that the government needed to provide its medium and long-term plan to enable the private sector to plan.
She said there was the need for the country to pursue vigorous commercial agricultural activities that were linked to the industry.
On the National Youth Employment Programme (NYEP), she said there was the need to ensure that it was sustainable and would not necessary lead to the bloating of government’s expenditure.
The Executive Director of the Centre for Policy Analysis (CEPA), Dr Joe Abbey, said the government had to keep a tight budget to ensure that progress made in macro-economic stability was not derailed.
He said last year’s budget indicated that “there were ballooning financial gaps” as a result of government borrowing from the domestic market.
Dr Abbey stated that there was pressure on government budget on expenditure and cautioned that the country needed to tread cautiously.
A Senior Economist at the Private Enterprises Foundation (PEF), Mr Moses Agyeman, said there was the need for a special fund that would support the sector.
He underscored the importance of the agricultural sector in the country’s economy and said the current structure of the banking system did not support the agricultural sector.