We'll leverage local capacity to boost food production - Veep

GHANA and Thailand have agreed to set up a Joint Commission for Cooperation by the third quarter of this year, to foster cooperation in various fields of endeavour, for the mutual benefit of both countries.

Consequently, the two countries have resolved to kick-start the bilateral agreements and frameworks in the short-term, to facilitate the establishment of the proposed commission.

This was disclosed when a Thai delegation conferred with the Vice-President John Mahama at the seat of government. They were accompanied by Mr. Dan Abodakpi, Ghana's Ambassador to Thailand.

The Thai government sees Ghana as a strategic country in the sub-region and hopes to strengthen bilateral and trade relations with it, with a view to using the country as a platform to reach the rest of the ECOWAS countries.

The delegation is interested in investing in Ghana's services sector, the energy sector (purchasing oil from Ghana), and the agricultural sector among others.

Welcoming the delegation, Vice-President Mahama said the country wanted to establish a strong agricultural and industrial based economy and said Ghana stood to benefit immensely from Thai technology and know-how.

He said the Ghana spends about one billion dollars annually to import food, especially those it has a comparative advantage to produce. "If this money goes directly to our local farmers, it will at least change their livelihood," he added.

The Vice-President said with the current situation in the world, there was the need to leverage every single capacity to contribute to food production. In view of that, the Thai know-how and technology in agricultural mechanisation was welcomed, he added.

Vice-President Mahama said it was good that Thailand was looking in the direction of Ghana as it was a good destination for doing business on the African continent. Adding, that the rate of investment returns in Ghana is high besides a stable and peaceful climate.

Dr. Suthad Setboonsarng, head of the Thai delegation said plans to set up a joint commission between the two countries would be tabled before its cabinet hopefully in the second quarter of the year.

He said Thailand would organise an international fair and exhibition, which would be the second largest in the world outside Europe and urged Ghanaian businessmen and women to take advantage of it to showcase their products to the world.

"We have had a good discussion with the private sector in Ghana, and we hope it will be the bedrock of relations between our countries," said Dr. Suthad.

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Story: Office Of The Vice President
1/3/11

Political crisis in Libya will not affect Ghana's petroleum supply - Vice President

Vice President John Dramani Mahama has stated that the political crisis in Libya and other North African countries would not affect the supply of petroleum products in the country.

"However, as Libya is a member of oil Producing and exporting countries (OPEC), persistent troubles in the area could subsequently have a negative effect on the global supply of the products in other countries including Ghana in the long-run."

Vice President who was speaking to journalists at Kumasi at the end of his five-day official visit to some parts of the Northern, Brong Ahafo and Ashanti regions said apart from Libya that supplied petroleum products to Ghana, government had also established bilateral agreements with Nigeria and Equatorial Guinea to sustain constant supply of the products.

He said government was working around the clock to peacefully evacuate all Ghanaians in Libya and called on all relevant agencies to expedite action to ensure an incident free evacuation.

He said it was unfortunate that such uprisings had permeated in that region and hoped there would be accepted measures that would calm down the nerves of the combatants.

The Vice President gave the assurance that government would do everything possible to ensure a sustainable supply of petroleum products and called on Ghanaians to pray for people of North Africa to finally come out of their political predicament.

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Story: Office Of The Vice President
27/2/11


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Government to channel bulk of GETfund to support basic and second cycle institutions - Vice President

GOVERNMENT is now pursuing a policy of directing the bulk of the GETfund support to basic and second cycle institutions than tertiary institutions, to raise infrastructural development at those levels of education.

Vice-President John Mahama, who disclosed this at the 40th anniversary celebration of the Ejisuman Senior High School here in theAshanti Region , said the move, which followed a stakeholders’ conference on the Getfund, was informed by the fact that the basic level constituted the building blocks of education.

The Vice-President said the government would not discriminate in the provision of infrastructural projects to schools. He, however, urged heads of educational institutions to generate funds internally to complement the government’s efforts.

The anniversary, themed, “Developing less endowed schools: The basis for the total development of education in Ghana,” witnessed the splendid display by the school’s cadet corps and cultural troupe. It also saw the recognition of excellence on the part of some staff and students.

Vice-President Mahama said the government would not hesitate to come to the aid of schools that took the initiative by raising funds internally to address their needs. He commended the Ejisuman School highly for its efforts in that direction.

He said the government was reciprocating the gesture with the provision of 1,000 bags of cement as its contribution to the school’s wall project. Additionally, a 33-seater bus would be presented to the school.

Moreover, the Vice-President pledged that he would be the school’s advocate and ensure it got its fair share of the GETfund to enable it to address its infrastructural needs. “The GETfund formular for this year has been drawn and I will ensure provision is made for a boy’s dorm in this school,” he said.

Mr. Mahama said the government had developed several key interventions to bring about quality education in the country and mentioned efforts to eliminate the school under trees phenomenon, the free school uniformproject, distribution of buses to schools and the School Feeding Programme.

He urged female students to venture into the mathematics, science and technology-based courses, as the government was offering bursaries to such students.

The Headmaster of the school, Reverend Collins Oppong-Anane, said the school, through its own efforts, put up a modern science laboratory, a girls’ dormitory and some bore holes and appealed for government support in the construction of a library and a home economics centre.

He said the school was established in September, 1970 with a student population of 105, nine teaching and two supporting staff. Its population is now 2,870 with staff strength of 110 and 76 non-teaching staff.

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Story: Office Of The Vice President
27/2/11

Government to open a new Senior High School at Bamboi - Vice President

Vice President John Dramani Mahama has announced that a new Senior High School would soon be established in Bamboi in the Bole District of the Northern Region to ease pressure on Bole Senior High School.

He said apart from the Bole Senior High and Wenchi Senior High in the Brong Ahafo region which were closer to Bamboi, other students had to move up to the Upper West or Ashanti regions to further their education with the resultant financial burdens on their families.

Vice President Mahama announced this when he inaugurated a 40-Seater Information, Communication and Technology (ICT) centre at the Bole Senior High School in the Northern Region.

He said education was essential for development and government would do everything possible to ensure that all children acquired quality education to harness and develop their talents.

The ICT Centre which was established by Ghana Investment fund for electronic communications (GIFEC) would not only provide the students with basic knowledge in the internet, but would also enable them to communicate easily with friends and family members.

Vice President Mahama appealed to the students not to over concentrate on sending only emails to friends and family members, but to allocate adequate time to studies in other subjects in order to come out with flying colours in their final examinations.

Mr Kofi Attor, Chief Executive Officer of GIFEC said his outfit which was established in 2004 and passed into law in 2008 had so far extended ICT facilities to all the 38 Teacher Training Colleges of the country, 26 Technical Institutes, 36 National Vocational Training Institutes and Leadership Training Institutes.

He said they would soon extend their services to 250 Post Offices, Regional Libraries and Prisons throughout the country.

Mr Attor said they were also engage in selling out affordable phones designed by MTN and Vodafone Mobile Phone Networks for public use.

Mr Mahama Iddrisu, Headmaster Headmaster of Bole Senior High school also appealed to the government to support them with more dormitory, classroom and dinning hall blocks to enable them to adequately accommodate the students.

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Story: Office Of The Vice President
27/2/11

Government has not abandoned Kumasi projects - Vice President

Vice President John Dramani Mahama at the weekend gave the assurance that government would not abandon any development project inKumasi and the Ashanti region for that matter.

"Work on most of the projects in the Kumasi metropolis have been stalled due to the fact that they were financed by the government of Ghana funds, but for now we are sourcing funds for other areas that will complete all the abandoned projects in the coming months."

Vice President said this when he joined the people of Kumasi Metropolitan Assembly to clean and desilt choked gutters.

Some weeks ago there were stories suggesting that government had abandoned major development projects in the Kumasi Metropolis which prompted the Vice President's reaction.

He said apart from being central to the entire country, Kumasi was the second largest city with high economic viability and could not be ignored.

"Government cannot forget Kumasi, because it is central and sensitive and in due course all abandoned projects will be completed."

He called on the political leadership of the region to work hard to reclaim the accolade of 'Garden City of West Africa', which had eluded the country over the years due mainly to appalling environmental conditions and lack of committed attitude towards good sanitary practices.

On sanitation, the Vice President called on everybody to contribute meaningfully towards the achievement of environmentally friendly conditions adding 'everybody has a stake in the control of our environment in the country.'

He said government would soon embark on a comprehensive campaign on plastic disposals to rid the cities of plastic filth.

Vice President Mahama said under the campaign, certain grammes of plastics would be ban to pave way for more environmentally friendly plastics that could be recycled for years without negative repercussions on human existence.

"The first hurdle to solving the plastic problem is to change human our attitude towards the disposal of such plastics and other hazardous practices."

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Story: Office Of The Vice President
26/2/11

Government will improve living conditions of Ghanaians - Veep

The Vice President John Dramani Mahama, has reiterated that the Government of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) would continue to do all that it could to improve the living conditions of Ghanaians.

He said what the Government needed was the resolve by the people to support its policies and programmes to be able to sustain its development efforts.

The Vice President was addressing a section of residents of Kumasi after he had joined them in a clean-up exercise at the central business district.

The exercise formed part of preparation to keep the Metropolis tidy ahead of the commemoration of the 54th anniversary of Ghana's independence.

The four-hour exercise was organized jointly by the Kumasi Metropolitan Assembly, the Ashanti Regional Coordinating Council (RCC) and civil society organizations.

They cleared gutters, evacuated heaped refuse and also disinfected open spaces.

“Government would continue to provide jobs and to create conducive environment for good governance and the rule of law’” vice president had said.

Mr Mahama observed that sanitation-related diseases could be brought down to the barest minimum if the citizenry adopt good sanitary practices at all time.

He said it was time people became alive to their sanitation responsibilities to avoid outbreak of epidemic.

Mr Samuel Sarpong, the Metropolitan Chief Executive (MCE), said the Authority would vigorously enforce its bye-laws on sanitation to help to beautify the Metropolis.

Dr Kwaku Agyemang-Mensah, the Regional Minister, said the RCC was committed to assisting KMA and the other district assemblies in their bid to develop the region

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Story: Office Of The Vice President
26/2/11

Ghana will have peaceful general elections come 2012- declares vice president Mahama

The Vice-President John Dramani Mahama has predicted that Ghana will go through the 2012 general elections unscathed, saying that next year’s polls will be peaceful and successful as the previous elections.

“Ghana is a blessed nation, we are being touted as a model of democracy and good governance in Africa, therefore, let’s not call curses on ourselves,” he said.

“We have had five successful elections and we will hold a sixth one come 2012,by the grace of God ” he added.

The Vice-President said this , when he joined the Berekum area branch of the Church of Pentecost congregation for the re-opening of the Goka Pentecost Prayer Camp for 2011 in the Jaman North District of the Brong Ahafo Region.

The Goka Prayer Camp, which was established 40 years ago, closes at the beginning of every January and reopens at the end of February.

Mr. Mahama pointed out that there were a lot that Ghanaians should be proud of, though the country was not the richest or the most endowed with natural resources in Africa, citing the stable and peaceful atmosphere prevailing in the country.

"Ghanaians should therefore count their blessings and name them one by one" he stressed.

Likening the government to the way God responds to His children, he noted that government could not respond to the needs of all the citizenry simultaneously just as God did not always answer the supplications and prayers of His people.

The Vice-President emphasized that the limited resources of the government required that the people exercised patience, as some needs were met by day while others’ expectations would be met by night.

He recalled the mass exodus of Ghanaians into Nigeria and La Cote d’Ivoire in the 1970s and 1980s in search of greener pastures “but gradually we are seeing God’s blessings in this country.”

“We should continue to pray to God to lead us to the path that He has chosen for us,” he added.

In his exhortation, Apostle Dr. Opoku Onyinah, Chairman of the Church of Pentecost urged Ghanaians to exhibit the spirit of oneness and reconciliation so as to forge ahead with one accord towards the socio-economic development of Ghana.

The congregation later prayed for peace and prosperity in Ghana and for normalcy to return to strife-threatened Cote d’Ivoire, which has been plunged into electoral dispute.













Story: Office Of The Vice President
25/2/11