Representatives of the private sector of Ghana have held a roundtable discussion on enhancing the trade and business environment in Ghana.
The forum brought together participants from organised private associations, think tanks, academia and advocacy groups, to take stock of the recent successes and ongoing challenges in creating a conducive trade and business environment in the country.
The forum was also used to launch a new trade advocacy initiative, the Trade Facilitation Coalition for Ghana, which aims to create suitable public-private dialogue platform in the country, to enhance the trade environment and business environment in Ghana.
Some participants shared their thoughts on how Ghana can improve the business environment to attract more investments.
“Our focus is not on imports alone, our focus is on the local manufacturers, also the producers, the farmers, associations who are trading across borders but also the traders,”
“State agencies are a necessary factor in international trade if they must regulate the goods that are coming in or how they are even brought in, you can’t waste them away but in time past these were agencies that got subvented directly from government. Now if the state is winning them of the central budget, then there will be the need for the state to ensure a certain degree of sustenance for them so that they don’t overly get out of their core mandate to want to now do business,”
They also called on government to fully implement the trade facilitation agreement it signed unto.