Kofi Amoah calls for 3-pronged development plan
The Chief Executive Officer of Progeny Ventures, Dr Kofi Amoah, says the country should, as a matter of priority, adopt a three-legged development plan on agriculture, manufacturing and finance to catalyse a strong domestic economy.
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That, he said, among other things, was to create jobs for the youth and graduates.
Dr Amoah said this when he presented a paper on “Industrialisation of Ghana: The Way Forward”, at the Fourth Public Lecture in commemoration of the 10th anniversary of Regent University College of Science and Technology last Friday.
Paradigm
“I have advanced my observation and offered the Kofi Amoah three-legged development paradigm of agriculture, manufacturing and finance and I’m convinced that it is not too late to have a primarily inward-looking development agenda,” he said.
That, he said, was to build the base for a strong domestic economy while engaging the global economy through export of manufactured products from subsidised home-grown agro-based factories, protected through tariffs to insulate infant industries.
Dr Amoah noted that the push and pull strings of economics were non-discriminatory and applied equally to all nations, adding that “this means that Ghana can easily jump on the road to success using the three-legged plan …and build an impressive economy using its abundant land and people resources”.
Evidence
The evidence, he indicated, showed clearly that the efficacy of the agriculture and manufacturing road to success was not limited to one race of people or one geographic area or limited to one specific period in history.
Dr Amoah, who was Chairman of the 2008 African Cup of Nations Local Organising Committee, said the countries which had successfully used the model spanned the globe –Europe, North America, North East Asia, South East Asia and South America.
Regarding agriculture, he said, there should be increased food production for domestic consumption to avoid hunger and malnutrition and also save money used in importing food. “In the case of Ghana, isn’t it scandalous that we import vegetables, fruits, fruit juice, rice, sugar, flour, tomatoes, “he asked.
Regional development
“Ghana must embrace regional development plan within the overall framework of the road to success. This will put focus on the natural resources unique to each region and be the catalyst for sparking economic development, creating job opportunities in each region and thereby diminishing the present unhealthy and unhelpful migration to the city centres,” he said.
Dr Amoah said local manufacturing must be the centre piece of any sustainable development programme, starting with areas of natural comparative advantage.
Finance
In Ghana, he said, finance policy of government must recognise the need to support small, high yield farms in order to maximise aggregate farm output, and that it was the close alignment of finance with agriculture and industrial policy objectives that had facilitated the unprecedented rapid economic development of north-east Asia (Japan,South Korea, Taiwan and China).
