By Christabella Arko, GNA
Accra, Nov. 15, GNA — Mr Ken Ofori Atta, the Finance Minister, has said government will continue to take deliberate and strategic steps to accelerate the nation’s economic transformation.
He said the goal, which was consistent with the medium-term aspirations of the Ghana Beyond Aid Programme, is to use resources creatively and efficiently to build “a prosperous and self-confident Ghana that is in charge of her economic destiny.”
Mr Ofori Atta said this whiles presenting the 2020 Budget Statement and Economic Policy to Parliament on Wednesday.
He said the Ghana Beyond Aid agenda was aimed at accelerating economic transformation based on rapid and inclusive growth that would double the per capita income over a ten-year period.
”The accelerated transformation we seek cannot be realised if we do business as usual. We must increase government capacity to finance and manage the ambitious agenda that we have set for ourselves and also radically improve the environment for the private sector”, Mr Ofori Atta said.
He said government would significantly increase domestic revenues in order to raise contributions to finance the ambitious development agenda under the Ghana Beyond Aid without over-burdening citizens with additional taxes.
He said currently, Ghana’s tax-to-Gross Domestic Product (GDP) ratio of 12.9 per cent in 2018 was below the average of other middle-income countries of 18 to 20 per cent.
Mr Ofori Atta said government has initiated strategies which would begin to address the situation and these include the expansion of the tax net through digitisation to improve identification of tax payers and the efficient collection of both tax and non-tax sources of revenue.
He said to complement all the efforts government was undertaking to make Ghana a much friendlier place for business men and women, it has rolled out plans on an aggressive agenda to attract Foreign Direct Investment (FDI).
He said according to the Bank of Ghana (BoG) records, FDI flows into Ghana from 2016 to 2018 averaged $2.9 billion a year and its percentage of GDP equated to around five per cent.
“I have no doubt that Ghana is well positioned to become the number one destination for FDI flows in the medium to long term for a host of reasons including its location, literacy rate, English language, rule of law, strong macro-economic fundamentals, stable and peaceful democracy, warm climate and warm hospitality”, he said.
Mr Ofori-Atta said cabinet has approved the formation of an inter-ministerial committee to provide policy guidance for the FDI agenda.
He said the mandate of the committee is to put in place a comprehensive strategy and plan of execution on attracting FDI flows going forward as well as identifying and packaging all the various initiatives and policies that are already in place to help make Ghana an attractive place to do business and attract FDI flows.
He said government has also built a strategic partnerships that could be leveraged to attract the FDI.
These, he said, include “Africa Investment Forum (AIF), Compact with Africa, the US “Prosper Africa”, UK-Ghana Business Council, EU-Africa Business, China’s FOCAC, Japan’s TICAD, Korea’s KOAFEC, the Asian Infrastructue Investment Bank (AIIB), Singapore, among others”.
He added that, all the measures on business regulatory environment and the FDI agenda were part of a broader and ambitious strategy to make Ghana a gateway to business in West Africa and Africa in general- “a business, financial, and logistics hub in the region”.
GNA
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