Ghana Needs Long-Term Development Plan

IT has become increasingly clear that the lack of long-term development plan is the cause of the numerous socio-economic problems confronting the country, which we believe, needs to be tackled seriously, to bring economic relief to the majority of Ghanaians.

WHAT the country needs to help spur on the growth of the economy is coherent development plan, incorporating the views of both the public and private sectors. This will help define where we want the economy of the country to be in the next ten years, where both the government and the private sector will have no choice but to work towards the vision.

SINCE the seven–year development blueprint by Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, successive governments have failed to develop any long–term strategy to guide the development of the country. Countries like China, South Korea, Malaysia and Taiwan, which Ghana was at par with economically in the 1960s, have seen massive economic growth because they developed long-term development plans and pursued same.

FOR such a long-term development plan to work there should be strong institutions to complement it. With weak institutions, regulations and norms, we cannot accelerate the development of the country. And we think, this has been the call of majority of Ghanaians over the years, the need for strong institutions.

TODAY believes that there is the need for change in the psyche of the citizens; particularly the youth that, it is not through politics that one can succeed in life. This is because, the young men and women today, find politics as lucrative venture and hence, their strong desire to become politicians.

AND until we are able to deal with this fast growing- mentality among the youth as a united country, we will continue to struggle for solutions for our economic problems which in actual fact they [solutions] are not far-fetched.

WHAT the country needs critically is massive investment in sectors of the economy such as agriculture and manufacturing sectors. Undoubtedly, agriculture holds the key to addressing the growing unemployment and economic challenges facing the country where one billion dollars which is used annually to import foods can be used to transform the country’s agriculture.

THE government must be seen to addressing the bottlenecks which hinder business growth and promote a thriving private sector to help them take advantage of the numerous business opportunities in the country particularly, in the areas of mining, energy and construction to expand their business portfolios.

WE believe it is time the government took a giant step and developed a long –term plan with the consensus of the whole nation, to help build a prosperous nation. The time for ad hoc measures and policies for developmental projects should be a thing of the past, and must not be tolerated in our governance circles, if we mean as country to enhance the living conditions of the people.

Source: Today