Veep calls on Judiciary to deal sternly with reckless drivers

The vice president has called on the judiciary to deal sternly with reckless drivers whose actions lead to the loss of lives on the roads.

Lamenting on the rampant carnage on the country’s roads, he observed that when the roads were in poor shape it rather kept citizens alive but when it was in good shape it turned into virtual slaughter houses.

“The judiciary and the law enforcement agencies must begin to deal severely with drivers who overlook simple precautions to serve as a deterrent to others and once that is done we will see discipline on our roads,” he said.

Vice-President John Mahama made the statement when he cut the sod for reconstruction work to begin on the 60 km Assin Praso-Asante Bekwai road in the central region.

Vice-President Mahama said the road was crucial not only for inter-regional and international trade but also to lessen the travel time commuters spend on that stretch of road.

He spoke of plans by the government to undertake a major overhaul of socio-economic infrastructure in order to make the country a competitive destination for foreign and local private investment.

The Vice-President mentioned the Sawla-Fufulso road, Eastern corridor and the Western corridor road projects, Twifo-Praso and the Dunwka roads as some of the projects that would soon come on-stream.

He expressed appreciation to the Japanese government for extending financial support to Ghana, saying, now that the Yen loan portfolio had been restored, the country was likely to benefit more from such support in the future.

Mr. Joe Gidisu, Minister of Roads and Highways said the Assin-Praso-Asante Bekwai road underwent major improvement between 1990 and 1996 with support from the Japanese government.

The road, however, experienced early deterioration due to sharp increase in vehicular traffic volumes than anticipated, he said, saying, it was abused due to overloading by trucks.

When completed, he said the road would facilitate transportation of farm produce from the North to market centres in the Western and Central regions of the country.

Mr. Keiichi Katakami, the Japanese Ambasador said the road could not be completed without the cooperation of residents nearby and entreated the residents to bear with any inevitable inconveniences.

“Through this multi-national joint work, I believe that the workers and the supervisory team can exchange not only technical knowledge but also other work related matters such as ethics and management style.”

The project, which involves the construction of a two-lane two-way single carriageway and the reconstruction of the bridge over the Pra river, is being financed with a $ 100 million grant from the Japanese government.

Expected to be completed in 2013, the project forms part of the National Trunk Road namely, the Yamoransa-Anwiankwanta-Kumasi road that links Abura Dunkwa, Assin Fosu, Assin Praso in the Central region, Fomena, Asante Bekwai, Kokofu, Kuntenase and Kumasi in the Ashanti region and beyond.







Story: Irene Ata-Donto
25/1/11

Gov't Applauded on Oil Debate

THE out-going British High Commissioner to Ghana, Mr. Nicholas Westcott, has commended the government for allowing open debates on the prudent use of its resources, especially the oil for the benefit of the people.

Singling out the recent lively public debate as to the best way to manage the nation's oil and gas resource, the envoy said he was impressed with Ghana's willingness to engage in such debates both within and outside the country, stressing the practice was worth emulating.

Mr. Westcott made these remarks when he called on Vice-President John Mahama at the Castle, Osu in Accra to bid him farewell after a three-year duty tour of Ghana.

During his stay in the country, the High Commissioner said he had learnt a lot about the nation's culture and fledgling democracy, and stressed the need for its consolidation to serve as a model to other African nations.

He lauded the government for the prudent management of the economy, telling the Vice-President that "Your contribution to helping build trade and business [in Ghana] has been very impressive." He also praised the country for its ability to be innovative in solutions to its problems.

Mr. Westcott, who leaves the country for Brussels, Belgium to work on an European Union project for Africa, expressed confidence that his three-year stay in Ghana had strengthened relations between the two countries.

He later presented a book about British innovation to the Vice-President.

Vice-President Mahama thanked the British government for supporting Ghana in various spheres through the Department for International Development (DFID).

He noted that DFID had been very helpful in the implementation stage of the Savannah Accelerated Development Authority (SADA) programme.

Mr. Mahama appealed to the out-going High Commissioner to keep supporting SADA programmes through the DFID as SADA begins another phase in the implementation its programmes.

Mr. Mahama said the commencement of an eye hospital project in Ghana in about two weeks time by the British would serve as a symbol of the close friendship between Ghana and Britain.

In another development, Jean Beagle, Executive Director of the United Nations AIDS programme (UNAIDS), paid a courtesy call on Vice-President Mahama at the Castle yesterday, to discuss the country's response to the HIV/AIDS pandemic.

Mrs. Beagle, who was accompanied by Dr. Angela El-Adas, Director-General of the Ghana AIDS Commission, has already met with the UN country team, development partners and some groups, as well as interacted with officials of the Ridge Hospital.

She lauded the country for reducing the HIV prevalence rate to 1.9 per cent but cautioned against complacency, stressing the need to focus resources on areas where a key impact could be made, employing a multi-sectoral approach.

"Ghana's five-year national strategic plan [to combat the scourge of HIV/AIDS], is an excellent one, it is well-consulted and results-oriented," she said.

Mrs. Beagle said the UNAIDS had adopted a three-pronged approach to combat the HIV pandemic, namely prevention, treatment and stigma prevention.

Responding, Vice-President Mahama stressed that in spite of the tremendous gains made in reducing the prevalence rate, the government would not be complacent in the fight against the disease, assuring that the Ghana AIDS Commission would be adequately resourced to do its work effectively.

He said the country's strategic plan focuses on reducing mother to child transmission as it is the belief that innocent children ought not to be infected. He stressed the need to scale the national coverage, saying, government value its partnership with its development partners and would welcome their support in such efforts.







Story: Wisdom Peter Awuku
21/1/11

$1.5 Billion Investment In Rail Sector

Vice President John Dramani Mahama has assured foreign investors of government’s preparedness to review its list of development plans to ensure that the appropriate investment is made to benefit the people.

One of such development priority list is the rail transport system to alleviate the perennial vehicular traffic situation in Accra and other cities of the country.

Mr. Mahama gave the assurance when Mr. Ekram Javad Miller, President of the Intercontinental Development Corporation of the United States of America, called on him at the Castle, Accra, to announce to him his preparedness to invest over $1.5 billion in the monorail system in Ghana.

He indicated that every development must be tied in to a general plan being executed by the Ministry Transport and therefore whatever plan any investor has should be handled by the sector ministry.

The Vice-President also said the Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning would also study the terms of the project and come out with appropriate measures after which it would be taken to parliament for approval.

Vice President Mahama commended the investor for the confidence he has in the country that encouraged him consider Ghana as the most appropriate to invest in.

For his part, Mr. Miller, said they had already carried out feasibility studies with the Ministry of Transport on rail transport in Accra and were ready to invest a total of $1.5 billion in the construction.

He said the population of Accra was growing on a daily basis and required alternative transport systems to decongest vehicular traffic in the city.

Mr. Miller assured the vice-president of securing the needed facility from the Bank to commence construction , adding that he had already advanced moves to acquire half of the amount from the United State of America Bank, in addition to his personal funds, to execute the project.

He expressed concern over the period workers spend in traffic before going to work, which ultimately affect productivity.


Mr. Miller said the project would create over 1000 jobs for the youth and reduce workers' monthly expenditure on transport.

He was accompanied by Mrs. Dzifa Ativor, Deputy Minister of Transport.







Story: Wisdom Peter Awuku
20/1/11

"Peace is a powerful tool of diplomacy, but misunderstood" - Veep

The practice and promotion of peace is a powerful tool of diplomacy that has all-too-often been misunderstood, especially in Africa, Vice President of Ghana, Mr John Dramani Mahama has observed. "This became clear to me recently when Ghana claimed a position of peace and nonviolence in regards to the recent developments in its neighboring country, Cote d'Ivoire," he said on Tuesday in an article he wrote entitled 93The Politics of Peace".

Vice President said even though the international community had recognized opposition candidate Alassane Ouattara as the legitimate democratically chosen winner of the November 2010 presidential elections in Cote d'Ivoire, incumbent Laurent Gbagbo had refused to relinquish power, thus it had created tension and caused many lives.

He said when President John Evans Atta Mills, announced that Ghana was unable to contribute troops for any mission to forcibly remove Mr Gbagbo from office, the decision was met with a fair amount of both suspicion and scorn despite the fact that Ghana had already publicly aligned itself with the position of the African Union (AU) as well as that of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS). "It struck me as odd and disturbing that our president's plea for peace

to be given an adequate opportunity to prevail could be so easily ridiculed and dismissed.

"What it immediately brought to mind for me were the still-relevant words spoken by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in 1964 after being awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. 91Nonviolence,' Dr King said, 91is the answer to the crucial political and moral question of our time - the need for man to overcome oppression and violence without resorting to violence and oppression. Civilization and violence are antithetical concepts." Vice President asked: 94Could it be that Africa has been witness to so much violence and oppression that we have actually come to believe it should be an acceptable, if not automatic, response?

"Hasn't there been enough bloodshed on the continent? Consider: a war in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) that, since 1998, has claimed 5.4 million lives; two back-to-back civil wars in Liberia claiming upwards of 250,000 and displacing millions; the mass murder of a million Rwandans during the 1994 genocide; an 11-year civil war in Sierra Leone that left over 50,000 dead; decades of war and genocide in the Sudan that has killed nearly a million people and displaced at least twice that number. "Sadly, the list does not end there. Even Cote d'Ivoire, just within this past decade, was also marred by a 7-year civil war."

He said the stand that Ghana had taken on the crisis in Cote d'Ivoire should not come as a shock to anyone because it was the first sub-Saharan African nation to gain its independence and had always been a champion for freedom and peace.

Vice President said Ghana's founding father, Dr Kwame Nkrumah, went so far as to declare that Ghana's independence "is meaningless unless it is linked up with the total liberation of the African continent." "Our commitment to peace has been unwavering and undeniable, in both word and deed," he noted. The irony in President Atta Mills' statement that Ghana would be unable to send troops to oust Mr. Gbagbo, he said, was that Ghana's supplementary forces were currently engaged in peacekeeping missions throughout the world .. Under the flag of the United Nations, Ghana currently has peacekeepers in the DRC, the Darfur region of Sudan, Liberia, Sierra Leone, Chad, Kosovo, Southern Sudan, Lebanon and, of course, in Cote d'Ivoire.

Vice President Mahama said the January 13th African Ambassadors to the United Nations meeting to discuss the dilemma of Cote d'Ivoire, agreed that a military option was no option at all.

"This is not synonymous with inaction. To the contrary, it is representative of the sort of unity and cooperation that has not been seen on the African continent in the political arena since the post-colonial era," the Vice President said. He said the final days of January this month would find African heads of state in Addis Ababa at an African Union summit working together to create solutions to the evolving refugee issue, an obvious and unavoidable result of the more pressing problem, the discord in Cote d'Ivoire. "I am pleased by this recent chain of events that point Africa in the direction of nonviolence because for far too long the struggle for power has taken precedence over the survival of people."

He quoted former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan in his acceptance speech after his Nobel Peace Prize in 2001, when he said: "The 20th century was perhaps the deadliest in human history, devastated by innumerable conflicts, untold suffering, and unimaginable crimes," and noted that in no place was this more evident than Africa.

"But already Africa is changing, indeed has changed. Look at South Africa; look at Kenya; look at Liberia, Sierra Leone, and Sudan. Look at Tunisia.

"This is the new Africa, a continent that is fast being defined by a politics of peace, and by the will of people who are empowering themselves to shape their own future," Vice President Mahama said.



FULL TEXT

The practice and promotion of peace is a powerful tool of diplomacy that has all-too-often been misunderstood, especially in Africa. This became clear to me recently when Ghana claimed a position of peace and nonviolence in regards to the recent developments in its neighboring country, Cote d'Ivoire.

The international community has recognized opposition candidate Alassane Ouattara as the legitimate democratically chosen winner of the November 2010 presidential elections in Cote d'Ivoire. Nevertheless, presidential incumbent Laurent Gbagbo has also claimed victory and is refusing to relinquish power. The situation in that nation has grown increasingly tense, and dozens of lives have already been lost.

On January 7th our president, John Evans Atta Mills, announced that Ghana is unable to contribute troops for any mission to forcibly remove Mr. Gbagbo from office. Surprisingly, this decision was met with a fair amount of both suspicion and scorn -- despite the fact that Ghana had already publicly aligned itself with the position of the African Union (AU) as well as that of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), both of which are intent on arriving at a just resolution, one that respects the will of the Ivorian electorate.

It struck me as odd and disturbing that our president's plea for peace to be given an adequate opportunity to prevail could be so easily ridiculed and dismissed. What it immediately brought to mind for me were the still-relevant words spoken by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. in 1964 after being awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. "Nonviolence," Dr. King said, "is the answer to the crucial political and moral question of our time -- the need for man to overcome oppression and violence without resorting to violence and oppression. Civilization and violence are antithetical concepts." Could it be that Africa has been witness to so much violence and oppression that we have actually come to believe it should be an acceptable, if not automatic, response? Hasn't there been enough bloodshed on the continent? Consider: a war in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) that, since 1998, has claimed 5.4 million lives; two back-to-back civil wars in Liberia claiming upwards of 250,000 and displacing millions; the mass murder of a million Rwandans during the 1994 genocide; an 11-year civil war in Sierra Leone that left over 50,000 dead; decades of war and genocide in the Sudan that has killed nearly a million people and displaced at least twice that number. Sadly, the list does not end there. Even Cote d'Ivoire, just within this past decade, was also marred by a 7-year civil war.

The stand that Ghana has taken on the crisis in Cote d'Ivoire should not come as a shock to anyone. Since becoming the first sub-Saharan African nation to gain its independence, Ghana has always been a champion for freedom and peace. Our founding father, Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, went so far as to declare that Ghana's independence "is meaningless unless it is linked up with the total liberation of the African continent."

To that end, in 1960 Dr. Nkrumah did not hesitate to send Ghanaian troops as part of the UN peacekeeping mission in the former Congo Leopoldville. In the half century since then Ghana has been -- and continues to be -- the largest African peacekeeping contributor nation, and the sixth largest among all of the world's peacekeeping contributor nations. Our commitment to peace has been unwavering and undeniable, in both word and deed. The irony in President Atta Mills' statement that Ghana would be unable to send troops to oust Mr. Gbagbo is that our supplementary forces are currently engaged in peacekeeping missions throughout the world. Under the flag of the United Nations, Ghana currently has peacekeepers in the DRC, the Darfur region of Sudan, Liberia, Sierra Leone, Chad, Kosovo, Southern Sudan , Lebanon and, of course, in Cote d'Ivoire.

On January 13th, the African Ambassadors to the United Nations held a meeting at the behest of the African members on the UN's Security Council -- Gabon, Nigeria and South Africa -- to discuss the dilemma of Cote d'Ivoire. The emerging consensus was that a military option is no option at all. This is not synonymous with inaction. To the contrary, it is representative of the sort of unity and cooperation that has not been seen on the African continent in the political arena since the post-colonial era. The final days of January will find African heads of state in Addis Ababa at an African Union summit working together to create solutions to the evolving refugee issue, an obvious and unavoidable result of the more pressing problem, the discord in Cote d'Ivoire.

I am pleased by this recent chain of events that point Africa in the direction of nonviolence because for far too long the struggle for power ha s taken precedence over the survival of people. In his acceptance speech after being awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2001, former Secretary-General of the United Nations, Kofi Annan, also a native son of Ghana, reminded the world that, "The 20th century was perhaps the deadliest in human history, devastated by innumerable conflicts, untold suffering, and unimaginable crimes." In no place was this more evident than Africa.

But already Africa is changing, indeed has changed. Look at South Africa; look at Kenya; look at Liberia, Sierra Leone, and Sudan. Look at Tunisia. Perhaps that's why in his speech Secretary-General Annan also reminded us that, "In this new century, we must start from the understanding that peace belongs not only to states or peoples, but to each and every member of those communities. ...Peace must be made real and tangible in the daily existence of every individual in need. Peace must be sought, above all, because it is the condition for every member of the human family to live a life of dignity and security." This is the new Africa, a continent that is fast being defined by a politics of peace, and by the will of people who are empowering themselves to shape their own future.







Source: GNA
19/1/11

GOV'T, TUC, AGI and GEA agree on the way forward in fuel hikes

The Vice President, John Mahama has announced that Government will through the Economic Management Team hold discussions with the Bank of Ghana and Commercial Banks on rationalizing Interest Rates to allow industry and other businesses to borrow and engage in productive business.

Mr. Mahama made the announcement when he read a ten point communique that was reached by Government, the Trades Union Congress (TUC), the Association of Ghana Industries (AGI) and the Ghana Employers Association (GEA) at a crunch meeting yesterday at the Castle, Osu.

The communique encouraged the tripartite institutions negotiating the new National Minimum wage to expedite action to mitigate the burden that the recent fuel hikes has brought to the masses.

Reading the communique to the media the Vice President stated that whiles the communique urged the tripartite institutions to deal with the new minimum wage issue it tasked the Ministry of Energy to make available to the private sector and other stakeholders the quarterly bulletin on the movement of petroleum prices on the world market to enable industry to forecast and plan for the future. In addition, the communique tasked the National Petroleum Authority (NPA) to collaborate with the Energy Ministry to consider the concerns of Industry on the cost build-up of Residual Fuel Oil.

The communique, according to the Vice President further directed the Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning to publish in detail, the Tema Oil Refinery debts as at December 2010 to ensure openness and transparency and also called on the Ministry of Transport to continue to engage the Road Haulage Association and other transport unions to facilitate the fixing of fares in order to control escalating food prices when petroleum prices change.

Whiles the communique again tasked the various stakeholders to quicken the implementation of the Single Spine Pay Policy the TUC urged Government to reconsider the current income tax threshold in order to bring more relief to workers, and rather called on Government to widen the tax net in order to improve government revenue.

In fine, the communique vehemently urged businesses and especially traders not to take undue advantage of the recent fuel priceincrement to arbitrarily increase the price of their products.







Story: George K. Azirigo
18/1/11

$1.1 billion fertilizer production plant to come on stream in 2016

PLANS are far advanced for the construction of a multi-million dollar fertiliser production plant at Nyankrom in the Shama Industrial Area of the Western Region, to produce fertiliser at relatively cheaper prices to boost agricultural activities in Ghana.

The plant, which will produce 1.1 million tonnes of fertiliser per annum, is to be built by technicians from India and is expected to be in operation in 2016, by which time gas from the country's oil and gas industry will be available in large quantities to power it.

To concretise outstanding issues relating to the establishment of the plant such as raising the requisite financing estimated at $1.1 billion, the share holding structure and management of the company to be established and the project designs, a high-powered delegation from India met with Vice-President John Mahama at the Castle, Osu in Accra yesterday.

The delegation, led by Dr. Sutanu Behuria, Indian Minister in charge of Chemicals and Fertilisers also included officials from that country's ministry of commerceand offiicials from Ghana's Ministry of Food and Agriculture and the Ministry of Energy.

Accroding to experts, fertiliser will be a strategic commodity in the next decade as the World Food Programme has called for an increase in world food production to 70 per cent. In that regard, the experts say there will be need for adequate fertilisers at affordable rates to farmers to ensure food security.

In his opening remarks, Kwesi Ahwoi, Minister of Food and Agriculture said a team from India was in the country in August last year to undertake due diligence on the proposed fertiliser plant, following which a committee comprising MOFA, Ministry of Energy and the Ghana National Petroleum Corporation was established to look at the feasibility.

"We have been engaging seriously in this, we have to follow up on the pre-feasibility that was submitted to us and fine-tune it," he said, adding, a Ghanaian delegation would visit India in February this year to firm up the deal, which is to begin in three years.

"We also need a loan for the project [1.1 billion dollars], we are looking whether the funds should come from India, the Ghana governemnt or a joint financing. We are also looking at the joint nature of the company that will be established becuase we see the people of Takoradi as equity shareholders in the project," Mr. Ahwoi told the Vice-President.

Mr. Armah Kofi Buah, Deputy Minister of Energy gave the assurance that the quantity of gas needed would be in place to power the plant as there would be a lot of gas development in Ghana in the coming years.

He stressed the need to acquire the site as quickly as possible to pave way for the necessary legal approval from Parliament to enable the project to begin in earnest.

On his part, Dr. Behuria said the Indian side was serious and keen about building the plant and stressed the need for the Ghanaian side to take into consideration the pricing of gas as well as it would also be critical to the project.

He said the project was important as it would spare the country the huge subsidies on fertiliser and bring about agricultural productivity.

Vice-President Mahama recalled that the idea for the establishment of a fertiliser plant was mooted when he visited India last year to attend a business conclave.

He noted that world food production would have to increase in the next 10 to 20 years, and the critical role of adequate and affordable fertilisers in this could not be overemphasised.

"It is always proper to engage in South-South cooperation in projects like this that will be beneficial to our countries," Mr. Mahama said.

He gave the assurance that the government remained committed to the project and looked forward to its realisation as one of the flagship projects in the nation's oil and gas industry.







Story: Office Of The Vice President
17/1/11

Obuasi On Course to Achieve Gov't Agenda

THE Obuasi Municipality has become the latest municipality in the country to fully implement government’s plan of street naming and house numbering project dubbed “the Geographic Urban Service Infrastructure Initiative of Ghana”.

This feat, therefore brings Obuasi closer to becoming part of the Global Positioning System (GPS) that with the touch of a button, by using Google maps, would give the exact location of sites, places and towns within the Obuasi Municipality.

In commissioning the first phase of the project over the weekend at Obuasi in the Ashanti Region, Vice-President John Dramani Mahama commended the Municipal Chief Executive, the Chiefs and people of Obuasi for implementing the project covering theCentral Business District.

He described their success as a “practical manifestation of the fact that, with determination we can, as a country, achieve a high rate of success in our national endeavours if we put our shoulders to the wheel.”

Mr. Mahama explained that while at a conference in Ethiopia, he sought assistance from the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa to enable government undertake a street naming and house numbering project.

This resulted into a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between the Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development and the Economic Commission for Africa was subsequently signed to support the project.

“The MOU seeks for the development of geospatial database through processing, geo-referencing, three dimensional features recognition, extraction and exploitation of a Geo-stereo multispectral image over the Greater Accra Metropolitan Area-GAMA”, the Vice-president indicated.

He stressed that “It has always been my desire to see all major towns and cities zip coded and linked up the Global Positioning System (GPS). As you are aware, the world is developing fast technologically and Ghana cannot remain behind in being part of the global changing trends in technological advancement in this era of globalization.”

To ensure that the Street naming and House Numbering project became part of the national development strategy, Mr. Mahama stated that the MLGRD has developed a National Policy Manual on the project for approval by Cabinet.

“I believe that such a manual will set the guidelines for all districts to adopt in the modernization of our towns and cities in order to ease the identification and location of places and properties across the length and breadth of the country,” Vice-President Mahama assured.

He reminded Ghanaians of the importance of the project, especially in the delivery of mails and parcels in the era of expedited courier mail and packages delivery services and an aid to the travelling public, taxi and ‘trotro’ drivers and visitors to find directions to their destinations with ease.

“Additionally, the system, by providing easy identification, will enable the Assembly to easily identify properties for purposes of collecting the appropriate property rates and basic rates, fees and fines and other forms of taxes, thereby raking in more revenue into its coffers for local development,” Mr. Mahama stressed.

He again reminded the people of the difficulties the police and other security agencies go through when they have to respond to distress calls.

“In most cases, victims of fire outbreak or robbery, for instance, are unable to give the appropriate state agencies precise direction to the exact location of these incidents,” adding that “consequently, they arrive too late at the scenes of these unfortunate occurrences,” Mr. Mahama lamented.

The Vice-President called for the strengthening of collaboration and partnership between government, the private sector, bi-lateral and multi-lateral agencies as well as Civil Society Organisations in order to effectively address the challenges facing the implementation of the Street Address System in order to succeed in the revenue mobilization component of the project.

Addressing the deplorable infrastructural and road network in the municipality, Mr. Mahama assured the Chiefs and people of Obuasi of government’s plan to upgrade all the major road networks to enhance traveling and carting of goods and services.

He particularly mentioned the railway lines and said in the shortest possible time Obuasi would rediscover those periods when rail transportation was in vogue.

Present at the function was Elvis Afriyie Ankrah, Deputy Minister for MLGRD, the Municipal Chief Executive Alexander Ackon, The Kumasi Municipal Chief Executive Samuel Sarpong and other DCEs.







Story: Wisdom Peter Awuku
15/1/11