E-mail: ghnews@ghana.com Website: www.ghananewsagency.org
Fax: 669841 Tel: 665136/662381
First and Second Transmissions for today Thursday, July 2, 2009
Begins at: =================== 1800 hours

Major Events Expected Include:

Accra: A.U Commission President urges African leaders to focus on agriculture, eliminate political crisis

Attention Subscribers: Credit GNA with all stories used
End memo
GNA
REA
02 July 09


EXPO 01
Politics President AU
African leaders urged to halt food crisis, violence on continent

From Benjamin Mensah, GNA Special Correspondent, Sirte, Libya

Sirte (Libya), July 02, GNA - African leaders have been urged to commit more resources to agriculture to reverse the escalating food crisis, and to end the renewed violence in parts of the continent.
Dr Jean Ping, President of the African Union (AU) Commission, opined that the Continent had the means which, coupled with enough external support, could enable her to overcome the food crisis and regain her position as a continent that mattered.
Opening the 13 Ordinary Session of the Assembly, presided over by AU Chairman and Libyan Leader MuamarAl-Gadaffi, in Sirte, Libya, Dr Ping noted that economic growth in some African countries in the last five years before the global financial crisis, gave hope that African leaders could reverse the crisis.
He said the Union was determined in its pursuit of efforts to address the economic crisis and satisfy the daily aspirations of the people.
Ghanaian President Prof John Evans Atta Mills, is attending for the first time, the three-day summit which is on the theme, "Investing in Agriculture for Economic Growth and Food Security."
President Mills had earlier attended the 11th Summit of the African Peer Review Mechanism (APRM) at the same venue on Tuesday.
Until recently, agriculture has often been neglected in the national budget plans of some African countries, and women and children bear the brunt of hunger and malnutrition, resulting in children's stunted growth and ultimate slow long term development.
As food prices continue to fluctuate and remain higher than the poorest can afford, some countries have been forced to barter to obtain the necessary food imports.
United Nations (UN) estimates show that about 625 million people currently go hungry in Sub-Saharan Africa.
The already precarious situation, according to UN Deputy Secretary-General Dr Asha-Rose Migiro, is expected to get worse, as the world body projects that economic growth in Africa would sharply decrease from 4.9 per cent in 2008 to 0.9 in 2009, and poverty as a whole would rise by 1.2 per cent in 2009.
The Deputy Secretary-General stressed the importance of investing in agriculture to create jobs. "Investment in agriculture could make economic growth more durable and increase food and nutritional security."
Dr Migiro called on African countries to have a national strategy for agricultural development and to live up to the pledge to raise agricultural spending to 10 percent of the national budget.
The African leaders at the summit are expected to discuss means of strengthening the role of the AU in the prevention, management and resolution of election disputes and violent conflicts on the world's poorest continent, according to the summit's draft agenda.
They will also explore ways of preventing unconstitutional changes of government and strengthening the capacity of the AU to deal with such situations.
The Libya summit would also focus on the implementation of a decision adopted at the AU's Ethiopia Summit in February this year to transform the AU Commission, the executive arm of the pan-African body, into the new AU Authority.
A number of hot regional issues, including the security situation in Somalia, Zimbabwe and Sudan's Darfur region, are also expected to be discussed by the African heads of state and government.
Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, and Premier Silvio Berlusconi of Italy were present at the meeting.
The 13th AU summit was previously scheduled for July in Madagascar, but membership of that country was suspended in March due to a political stalemate there, and hence the cancellation of its hosting of the summit.
The AU was established in 2002 to replace the Organization of African Unity (OAU) founded in 1963.
It aims, among other things, at preserving and promoting peace and stability on the African continent, carrying out a strategy of reform and poverty reduction, and realizing the development and renewal of the African continent.
GNA
MI
02 July 09


EXPO 02
Politics Gambia Killings
Ghana, Gambia sign MOU on 2005 deaths, renew ties

From Benjamin Mensah, GNA Special Correspondent, Sirte, Libya

Sirte, July 2, GNA - Ghana and Gambia on Wednesday signed a Memorandum of Understanding to put their estranged relationship to rest and renew friendly ties following a joint UN/ECOWAS Report that ruled out Gambia's complicity in the deaths and disappearance of Ghanaian nationals in Gambia in 2005.
President John Atta Mills and President Yahyah Jammeh of Gambia reaffirmed their condolences to the bereaved families after the signing ceremony in Sirte, Libya.
The two presidents are attending the 13th Ordinary Session of the African Union and the asked the issue to be put to rest for the two countries to forge ahead.
They described the event as unfortunate and expressed thanks to the United Nations and the Economic Community for West African States (ECOWAS) for their roles in establishing the facts of the unfortunate incident.
"We are happy to see light at the end," President Mills said.
"Let's move on from here.... Truth never hides. Like a cork, it will come to the surface when submerged."
While expressing his condolences to the families, President Mills called on the two nations to look ahead and forge ahead together to reach the ultimate goal of improving the lot of their peoples.
"Let's move on, time is not on our side," President Mills said.
President Jammeh, who described Ghana as Gambia's best friend, recalled the friendly relations between the two countries and the mutual assistance each had given the other.
He said the issue had been blown out of proportion for political gains and was emphatic that the killings had not come from Gambian security forces.
While the government of Gambia suspected ritual killings, Ghanaian leaders staying in both Ghana Town and the Ghana Embassy in Gambia denied knowing the victims with the explanation that the victims had no identification.
President Jammeh said there was an initial allegation that 150 Ghanaians had been killed but the report showed that six Ghanaians and two other nationals were killed.
President Jammeh said the issue was the greatest accusation he had faced since his assumption of office.
"We have been treated as villains even at the Commonwealth," President Jammeh said, adding that he would not hesitate to admit the killings if Gambia security forces were responsible.
"There are about 10,000 Ghanaians making a living in Gambia. I've always been consoled by my clear conscience. We have death penalty in Gambia but we have never implemented it. This issue has hurt me so much."
"We are very grateful that this chapter is closed. We have forgotten all we have gone through," President Jammeh said.
Under the MOU, the two nations agreed that their governments would co-operate in the exhumation and repatriation of the bodies of the victims to their families in Ghana so that they would be given befitting burials.
The Report of the UN-ECOWAS Fact Finding Team, commissioned on August 14, 2008 at the request of the governments of the Gambia and Ghana, acknowledged that the "Gambia is not directly or indirectly complicit in the deaths and disappearances of the Ghanaian nationals concerned."
Nevertheless, the Gambian government agreed to make contributions to the families of the six Ghanaians found dead in its territory in conformity with African traditional values shared by both countries.
Both Ghana and Gambia pledged to pursue, through all available means, the arrests and persecution of all those involved in the deaths and disappearances of the Ghanaians and other ECOWAS nationals, especially those identified as culprits in the report.
Both countries agreed to follow up on any other future leads in the case of those suspected missing.
The Report recognised that the dead and the disappeared were victims of a human trafficking scam and because of the regional dimension of the problem, both governments called on ECOWAS member states, with the support of the international community, to intensify efforts to identify and punish known traffickers.
The two governments commended the facilitation of the UN and the ECOWAS and the work of the fact-finding team.
They expressed optimism that the findings of the report and the implementation of the decisions of their meeting would help to restore and strengthen the traditional cordial bilateral relations between the two countries.
The MOU was signed by Alhaji Muhammad Mumuni, the Minister of Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration, and his Gambian counterpart Dr Omar Alieu Touray, and witnessed by Mr Ojo Maduekwe, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Nigeria, who is also the Chairman of ECOWAS Council of Ministers and Dr Asha-Rose Migiro, Deputy Secretary General of the UN.
GNA
DK
02 July 09


NSCE 03
Science Workshop Climate
West African Sub-region vulnerable to climate change - Boamah


Accra, July 2, GNA - Dr Edward Omane Boamah, Deputy Minister of Environment, Science and Technology said on Thursday that the West African Sub-Region would be the most affected region by climate change, as long as it remained one of the poorest in the world.
He said over the last three or four decades, the impact of climate change had revealed the region's vulnerability and stressed the need for consensus actions to reduce the looming danger.
Dr Boamah was speaking at a two-day "technical validation workshop of sub-regional action, to reduce vulnerability to climate change in West Africa".
Representatives from member countries are attending the workshop organised by the ECOWAS Commission and the Ghana government, to discuss and finalize the climate change response strategies for West Africa.
The workshop would come out with concrete and implementable activities, projects and programmes that would address the negative impact of climate change.
Dr Boamah said climate change scenarios for West Africa indicated that the climate variability currently being experienced was likely to increase and intensified.
"Droughts, floods and storms are likely to increase, not only in frequency but also in intensity. Rainfall patterns are still changing and in coastal areas, sea level rise and rising temperatures will threaten coastal areas and ecosystems," he said.
He said the prospective impacts on society and economies across the sub-region were likely to be huge, thereby negatively affecting all sectors and groups of people with women, the poor and marginalized being the most affected.
The Deputy Minister announced that Ghana is preparing for a national climate change adaptation and mitigation strategies as part of the national climate change policy development.
He said these strategies were aimed at ensuring that climate change was integrated and mainstreamed into the country's national life as well as district development policies, plans and programmes.
Dr Boamah said the strategy focused on implementation of concrete adaptation interventions that were designed to address cross-sectoral linkages with emphasis on ecosystem-based management.
That, he said, would assist government to critically examine existing development policies as well as institutional and technical capacity development, to reduce to the barest minimum the negative impact of climate change on Ghanaians through appropriate and desirable policy interventions.
Mr Ousseini Salifou, Commissioner of Agriculture, Environment and Water Resources of the ECOWAS Commission, said no single country had the necessary resources and logistics to address climate change, hence the need for consensus efforts to mitigate the impact.
He said the list of Africa consensus was very tall and it was up to the participants to validate and adapt relevant ones for implementation.
Mr Salifou expressed the hope that the workshop would add up to a similar workshop at Banjul, Gambia, to take care of the impact of climate change in the sub-region.
He pledged the Commission's preparedness to support member countries to fight climate change.
Mr Jonathan Allotey, Chairman for the ceremony said climate change was not new in Ghana and asked the participants to come out with a tall list of solution to the problem.
GNA
YOAP/JA
02 July 09


EXPO 04
Science Health Improvement
ECOBANK partners GHS to launch customer care project

Accra, July 2, GNA - ECOBANK Ghana in partnership with the Ghana Health Service (GHS) on Thursday launched a "Customer Health Care," project to help promote quality service delivery within health institutions in the country.
The project is expected to imbibe in all GHS workers, quality customer care attitudes and ensure that customer care became an integral part of the service's culture for a better Ghana.
As part of the project, ECOBANK has in collaboration with the GHS developed training manuals and posters that would create customer care awareness and would also provide financial support in the area of employee training.
Dr George Sipa-Adja Yankey, Minister of Health, at the launch commended ECOBANK Ghana for the partnership and support, saying it would lead to improved health care delivery within the health sector, while enhancing the quality of lives of Ghanaians as far as their health status were concerned.
He called on all health workers especially doctors and nurses to make extra efforts to treat their patients with respect, love and care, inspite of the pressures and the poor state of working environment under which they work.
Dr Yankey said government was making every effort to improve the conditions of service of health workers, admitting that the challenge was great and needed the support of the private sector to achieve success.
The Minister said health care was critical for national development, arguing that a healthy nation guarantees' a healthy and productive employment-base that could be used to generate employment, build capacity, create wealth, reduce poverty and propel economic growth.
"Government intends to make Ghana a medical tourist destination and a medical hub for the West African Sub-Region, therefore the need to prepare its health personnel to observe basic qualities as far as customer health care was concerned," he said.
Dr Yankey said "giving maximum attention to patients and making them feel welcomed to the health facility could be considered a form of therapy that could lead to a large extent a speed up of the healing process of patients and further build public trust in the nation's health institutions."
He said in recent times there had been numerous public out cry over the general quality of health care delivery in health institutions, with various accusations of poor customer care and poor impute of health workers and this had spelt a bad name for the health sector.
He said it was important that all sectors under the Ministry embraced the new dimension to effective health care delivery, to help erase the negative name and perception given it by the public.
Dr Yankey said government would continue to create an enabling environment to attract public - private partnerships to support institutions in the country to develop their capacities for enhanced development and pledged government's support to ensure the sustenance of the project.
He also called on other corporate entities and organisations to emulate the GHS partnership with ECOBANK, while imploring the GHS to put in place a monitoring team to frequently evaluate the project from time to time and make imputes for its improvement.
Mr Samuel A. Adjei, Managing Director, ECOBANK Ghana, said the Bank was proud to be associated with the GHS on the initiative to promote quality health care in Ghana, saying it was clear that in achieving its organisational framework for increased access to good quality health service, customer service should be used as a tool to increase the value of the GHS service delivery.
He explained that customers ought to be seen as ambassadors for any organisation, therefore it was important for every institution or organisation to note that good customer service leads to satisfied customers, customer retention, increased productivity and effective brand building.
Mr Adjei said the bank's commitment to customer care had earned it various awards, the recent being the 2007 Best Bank of the year CIG and the 2007 Best in Retail Bank and Financial Advisory Services by the CIMG.
Dr Elias Sory, Director General, GHS, reiterated the call on all health workers to embrace the change and co-operate, to help bring a new and enhanced face to the GHS.
GNA
YOAP/JA
02 July 09


EXPO 05
Economic Workshop ILO
Cultivate development-oriented consciousness - Ghanaians urged

Winneba (C/R), July 2, GNA - Dr Nii Moi Thompson, an economist, has urged Ghanaians to cultivate a development-oriented consciousness for reliable and sustained socio-economic advancement.
He said God had provided the nation with all the good things such as fertile lands for agricultural development, gold and oil, which could be exploited to make life meaningful for its people.
Dr Thompson, who is the International Labour Organization (ILO) National Co-ordinator for Ghana, was giving an overview of the institution's local economic initiative at an orientation and technical training workshop at Winneba.
He said it was, therefore, unacceptable for the citizenry to attribute the increasing socio-economic challenges confronting the nation to witches and demons.
Dr Thompson said for Ghanaians to accrue maximum financial and social benefits from its numerous natural resources, they must first of all learn to accept and practice the natural laws governing the universe.
The citizenry, he urged, should also make hard work, honesty and dedication their watchwords throughout their life time.
He cited Korea, China, Japan and Malaysia, which hitherto were underdeveloped and said they succeeded in turning their economies around through hard work, perseverance and commitment to national goals.
Dr Thompson described as unfortunate that in our part of the world people always tend to blame the socio-economic difficulties on witches and demons forgetting that wealth could only be created through proper planning and hard work.
He called on the citizens particularly small and large scale entrepreneurs, to always self-examine themselves.
Dr Thompson expressed the hope that such self-appraisal exercise would help Ghanaians correct the wrong impression that any misfortune which happened to a citizen was the work of witchcraft or demons.
He said that bad planning coupled with lack of proper managerial knowledge and skills, financial mismanagement, as well as outmoded cultural beliefs and practices were the cause of serious economic problems that had often led to the collapse of many states and private industries in the country.
Dr Thompson said the ILO Decent Work Pilot Project (DWPP) being replicated in districts, was to ensure that the small-scale entrepreneurs in rural communities were not left out in the national development agenda.
The ILO National Co-ordinator advised operators in the hospitality industry to adopt cost-effective methods in running their hotels to attract more tourists to enhance the image of the industry and the nation.
He also called for education and technical training for the youth saying the great economic strides chalked by nations like China, Japan and Korea were the results of massive technical training to their youths.
Dr Thompson charged the participants to take the course seriously to enable them to make the expected impact when they went back to their respective districts after the course.
About 200 representatives selected from the various Sub-Committees on Productive and Gainful Employment (SPGES) operating in the Awutu/Senya, Agona and the Effutu Administrative areas under the auspices of the ILO are participating in the five-day workshop.
Topics being treated include modern business promotion techniques, prudent financial management, records keeping, marketing procedures required for efficient and effective running of micro and small-scale enterprises, participatory development techniques and advocacy for effective development.
GNA
LQ
2 July 09


EXPO 06
Economic Launch Network
Ghana joins World Industrialisation Partnerships Corporation


Accra, July 2, GNA - The Ghana Network of the World Industrialisation Partnerships Corporation (WIPCOR) was launched in Accra on Thursday with a call on members to bring on board the building of strong domestic industries to transform the country's economy for accelerated development.
Ms Hannah Tetteh, Minister of Trade and Industry, who made the call, said there was the urgent need to harness human resource and expertise, which involves innovative means through which the country can achieve its goal of industrial transformation.
She therefore, asked members of the Ghana Network, to bring their ideas to bear on an industrial policy, which government was in the process of developing.
Ms Tetteh said government was seeking to harness the potential of every sector of the economy by drawing up specific plans for attainment of envisaged goals.
The Minister said the objective was to help complement the various programmes that the Ministry of Trade had over the years undertaken to hasten the pace of the country's industrialization.
The four key priority areas to be covered by the strategy are regulatory and incentive regime, technology and innovation, production and distribution and cross cutting issues in industrial development.
Mr Francis Mensah, Chief Executive Officer of WIPCOR Ghana Network, said the organisation has been set up to promote partnerships with leaders in Business, Academia, government and industry to develop a national industrialization-led economy strategy for the country.
He said through the organisation a core of industrial entrepreneurs would be developed to provide viable industrial projects and in the process create employment.
Mr Mensah said the country urgently need to address economic development through industrial advancements in manufacturing, engineering, agriculture, among other things and called for foreign investment in the manufacturing sector rather than trading.
He also urged the banks and other financial institutions to support new and existing industries.
As part of the ceremony a National Industrialisation Captains Fund was launched to help in funding viable industries, build capacity of entrepreneurs and undertake advocacy in industrial development.
GNA
JA
02 July 09


EXPO 07
Economics Stock Exchange
GSE Index in another marginal rise

Accra, July 2, GNA - The main index of the Ghana Stock Exchange (GSE) inched up by 0.95 points in trading on Thursday to close at 5,427.20 points from 5,426.25 points.
Change for the year to date is -47.97 per cent.
Shares that changed hands closed the session at 362,900.
Market capitalisation was up marginally at GH