Mr. Kyeremanten launching the programme.
The Government yesterday launched a three-year business regulatory strategy to modernise the country’s legal and regulatory systems for economic growth.
The reforms to be rolled out in June this year, would help improve the country’s performance in the World Bank’s Doing Business Index report towards faster growth, job creation and economic prosperity.
The reforms to be implemented by the Ministry of Trade, in collaboration with other departments and agencies are to help make Ghana the best country in doing business in Africa.
The Minister of Trade, Mr. Alan K. Kyeremanten in launching the plan said, the reforms would ease the cost of doing business to give more meaning to the tax cuts announced in 2017 Budget and economic policy.
The reforms, he stated targeted four thematic areas including the number of days spent in registering of business which had been reduced to one day instead of initial two days, the issuing of construction permits which has been reduced from 45 days to five days, while the environmental impact approval and that of the Ghana National Fire Service permits, had also reduced significantly likewise the days for multiple approvals for building permits.
The minister stated that the joint technical committee review meetings of building inspectors and notifications as well as approvals days have all been streamlined into mandatory 30 days.
On getting electricity, Mr. Kyeremanten said the number of days transmissions of applications to the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) from the regional director to the Director of Engineering have also been streamlined, while site visits, engineering design study and estimates and approvals had been reduced.
He indicated that the Ghana national single window project was currently being worked on by key stakeholders to fasttrack trade facilitation processes at the ports to improve the “turnaround time”.
Mr. Kyeremanten, expressed optimism that the private sector which creates jobs would complement government’s efforts to facilitate growth adding this would be vigorously pursued.
He urged departments and agencies especially the private sector to play a leading role to support this very critical government programme and assured that a business reform strategy registry would be established to spearhead this aggressively and comprehensively.
The Chief Executive Officer of the Private Enterprise Foundation, Nana Osei Bonsu commended the government for the foresight which he said would promote business development for the country.
He urged the ministry to take a second look at other bottlenecks hindering good trade practices to ensure a successful implementation of the programmes.
Mr. James Asare Adjei of the Association of Ghana Industries said the action by government to provide a stimulus package for businesses facing challenges would help create more job opportunities for economic growth.
He assured of the AGI’s support for the reform strategy which he indicated would advance the country’s business performance.
By Lawrence Vomafa-Akpalu
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