Gov�t Must Walk Its Talk

Executive Chairman of Margins ID Group Moses Baiden says government must deliver on the several promises it has made to develop the country�s private sector players into huge, profitable multinationals. Mr. Baiden, speaking on the occasion of a visit by the new Danish Ambassador Tove Dengbol to one of Margins ID Group�s subsidiaries -- Intelligent Cards Production Systems Limited (ICPS), said it is about time government supports its indigenous companies to grow the private sector. The Danish government has through its Industrial Fund for Developing Countries (IFU) provided more than US$3.5million financing for ICPS, which operates the first and largest full service certified cards and secured manufacturing facility in sub-Saharan Africa. �If the Danish government can recognise the potential of our private sector and be so supportive of a majority-owned Ghanaian company like ICPS, then our own government must do more to strengthen the private sector. �All these Danish investments into ICPS have been made in response to government�s acclaim of the private sector as driver of job-creation and income generation, etc. We expect government to live by its promises and declared policies,� he said. �We urge our government to ensure that policy frameworks within which we work benefit Ghanaian companies; to create an enabling environment for private sector expansion; and to enforce our existing laws which prioritise local content margin of preference, PPPs and local productivity. According to Mr. Baiden, improving the capacities of local companies will not only improve the local economy�s productivity, but create high quality jobs, too. The visit of the Danish Ambassador comes after the IFU signed a binding commitment to provide ICPS with another facility of US$5million to refinance its short-term debts with medium-term loans, and to support ICPS deliver products on a supplier credit basis to IMS -- a Margins ID Group subsidiary that is a public/private partnership with the National Identification Authority. �We at ICPS are proud and grateful not only for the medium and long-term Danish concessionary loans to ICPS which have enabled us to continue expanding and creating quality jobs, but also the stamp of credibility that this gives our company in the areas of governance, transparency, productivity and potential,� he said. Ms. Dengbol�s visit to ICPS was a follow-up to a similar tour of the facility by her predecessor Margit Thomsen, earlier in May, to hand over the US$3.5million state-of-the-art card and security printing equipment under a Danida mixed-credit facility that enabled a significant upgrade of security and printing facilities for ICPS. She was elated that the Danish mission in Ghana has been a significant part of the ICPS success story, and reiterated the Embassy�s commitment to deepen cooperation between Ghana and Denmark through joint activities that serve the needs of Ghanaian citizens, organisations and companies. She is hopeful the upgrade will consistently put ICPS in pole-position to undertake printing the full range of secure cards and documents, including personalised ID cards; as well as fully configured data card personalisation systems reflecting transformational change in ICPS technical capability in the areas of secure printing and manufacture of secure documents and cards...ultimately enabling the factory to become the only certified factory in Ghana for the production of Europay, MasterCard and Visa (EMV). �Ghana and Denmark have had close relations as far back as anyone can remember, and over the years the relations have become more comprehensive and mutually beneficial for the two countries,� she said.