University of Ghana introduces dialogue series to expand national, international debate
The College of Humanities of the University of Ghana has introduced a dialogue series aimed at expanding debate on critical national and international issues.
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The series, open to the general public, will involve the participation of the diplomatic community, business, non-profit and academic communities, as well as staff, alumni and students of the university.
At the maiden edition of the dialogue series in Accra last Wednesday, the Provost of the College of Humanities, Professor Samuel Agyei-Mensah said the motivation to introduce the series was inspired by a discussion at a recent advisory board meeting of the college.
That meeting, he said, was of the view that given their rich academic backgrounds, academics in general ought to be at the forefront of major discussions of national and international interest.
Debate
“Therefore, our goal in instituting the dialogue series is to expand the range of critical debates devoted to national and international issues by the academic and non-academic fraternity. By so doing, we hope to stimulate interactions among academics, the public, private and non-profit sectors,” he said.
Throwing light on the topic of the maiden edition of “Ghana and the European Union (EU): A new partnership, ” Prof. Agyei-Mensah said selection of the topic was also motivated by the college’s desire to give visibility to one of its newly established centres, the Centre for European Studies, which is mandated to provide a platform for an interdisciplinary study of Europe.
The next dialogue in the series, he said, would focus on Asia to give visibility to the newly established Centre for Asian Studies.
Giving an overview of the EU and Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs), a Senior Lecturer of Political Science and the Director of the Centre for European Studies, Dr Ransford Gyampo, observed that in spite of the benefits of the EPA, it seemed countries within the West African sub-region were either dragging their feet or treading cautiously in signing the partnership.
EPA fears
He questioned whether it was out of paranoia, lack of understanding, well-founded fears or just a conscious decision to hasten slowly.
Proceeding further on what might be the reason for the situation, Dr Gyampo said it was a fact that African countries depended on export and import tariffs to raise domestic revenues for development and wondered if trade liberalisation under the EPA would not undermine that source of income and the dumping of cheap products on the continent’s market.
The EPA, he said, allowed for both foreign and local firms to compete on the same terms for the award of contracts and asked if that would not create stiffer competition to the disadvantage of infant firms in West Africa.
A more substantive question, Dr Gyampo posed, was how much West Africans export and how much could be exported, adding that one of the key challenges to under-development in West Africa and many countries of African origin was the over-dependence on import rather than export-driven economic systems that created huge balance of payment.
In that regard, he said the EPA with West Africa would come to naught if the sub-region failed to restructure its activities and economies to focus more on exports.
“You can give a dead person all the degrees and qualifications knowing very well that he would not use them,” he stressed.
Win-win situation
The EU Ambassador to Ghana, Mr William Hanna, said the EPA agreement was a win-win situation for both Ghana and the EU, adding that the objectives of the EPA were to increase investments and job creation in Ghana and West Africa, while intensifing and facilitating trade among Ghana, the West African sub-region and the EU towards a sustainable economic partnership.