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President John Dramani Mahama on Tuesday pledged government�s support to the Ghana Academy of Arts and Sciences to facilitate the promotion of innovation, science and technology. He noted that supporting the academy�s activities and projects would, among other things, assist the government in making and implementing policies in the arts and in the fields of science and technology. President Mahama made the pledge when he inspected progress of work on the academy�s building complex in Accra. The GH�12 million Ghana Education Trust Fund project, which is expected to be completed in December next year, involves a 400-seater auditorium, five-storey secretariat, a library and a research centre. The President cut the sod for the commencement of work on the project in October last year. The academy was founded by the nation�s premier President Dr Kwame Nkrumah to promote the study, extension and dissemination of knowledge in the arts and sciences, and to maintain proper standards of endeavour in all fields of the sciences and arts. For the past 54 years however, the academy has been operating on borrowed premises belonging to Council for Scientific and Industrial Research. President Mahama, who expressed satisfaction with the pace of work on the office complex, also pledged the government�s assistance to enable the academy to disseminate its activities to create public awareness on its mandate and urged members to share their challenges for redress. At a meeting with the academicians prior to inspection of the building project, President Mahama stressed government�s determination to turn around the economic challenges facing the country by next year and 2015. �This year has been a challenging year but next year things will improve, the economy will pick up and the challenges will be overcome,� he stated. Professor Francis K.A. Allotey, President of the academy advocated strengthening of relations between the academy and the Presidency so as to have matters of science, arts and technology as top priority. Professor Ralph Mills-Tettey, the Project Consultant, who is also honorary secretary to the academy, gave the assurance that the project would be completed on schedule. He said the academy�s auditorium and conference facilities would be opened to the public to organise programmes.