Volta trade, investment fair launched
The Volta Trade and Investment Fair has been launched in Ho to showcase the investment potential in the Volta and Oti regions.
The fair is expected to attract over 2,000 visitors comprising investors, business communities, diplomats, contractors, professionals in the building industry, students, young entrepreneurs and manufacturers.
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This year's event, scheduled for November 25 to December 8, 2019, will have over 200 local and international exhibitors from across the region and beyond, including countries such as India, Togo and Nigeria, participating.
All the 26 municipal and district assemblies of both regions will participate in the fair.
Volta-made products
The Volta Regional Minister, Dr Archibald Yao Letsa, who launched the fair, said this year’s fair would give prominence to Volta and Oti regions-made products and also prioritise ways in which locally manufactured goods could mingle with internationally made ones.
He noted that “we can only grow competitive industries when our economies are on the producing end and not on the receiving end”.
The theme of the fair is: “Sustainable investment and industrial growth through trade promotion”.
Local economy
Dr Letsa further called on the private sectors to invest more in the industrialisation of the local economy because the sector was the “nerve centre” of the economy.
“Our region cannot break out of the poverty cycle if we do not industrialise; investing in industrialisation is one of the best ways of supporting the private sector because the industry is the heartbeat of the private sector,” he explained.
He called on the private sector to take advantage of the enabling environment created by the government in order to meet the vision of the region as a producing and exporting one," he added.
Compete on global platforms
The Executive Director and Managing Consultant for Omega Strategic Resources Limited, Professor Paul Boakye, who was the guest speaker, advised investors and business owners to compete on global platforms and find innovative ways to transform agriculture growth.
He advised them to create an enabling environment to drive investors to the region, which would create employment.
Furthermore, he said, the entrepreneurial landscape of the region should be re-examined in order to move micro and small businesses into large ones.