Let�s Revive Local Industries � Odike

The 2012 Flag bearer of the United Front Party ( UFP), Mr Akwasi Addai Odike, has called for an industrial revolution in the country to help salvage the country out of poverty and unemployment. He stressed that it was industrial development that could guarantee the country's economic growth. He, therefore, called on the government to revive the local industries and create new ones to overcome the unemployment crisis the country was facing. Speaking to the Daily Graphic in Kumasi, Mr Odike said reviving the local industries would create better conditions and stable incomes for the people. He said the rate of population growth, coupled with high poverty levels and unemployment, denoted that the country had to revive the local industries to meet the demands of the moment. In that regard, Mr Odike urged the government to encourage and provide finance to both private and the public sectors to embark on mass agricultural production and other businesses that could help cushion the economy. Mr Odike, who is also a business executive, called for the expansion of the tax net to cover many more people who were outside it. "Taxation is the price of development, and, so it behoves everyone who works for income to pay tax�, he said. He said there were many people in gainful employment but were not paying tax for development and charged the revenue agencies to ensure that everybody entitled to pay tax did so. Mr Odike mentioned some organisations, including churches and other religious entities, which make a lot of money but did not to pay tax for development.