<<Print>>

The conference hall of Royal Senchi Hotel at Akosombo, where the National Economic Forum (NEF) is being held, erupted into laughter when the Vice-President, Mr Kwesi Amissah-Arthur, announced that he was the Master of Ceremony (emcee) for the forum. The Vice-President said this as he welcomed eminent economists, policy makers, business leaders, representatives of traders associations, development and social partners and members of academia to the four-day forum, which is being held on the theme, �Changing the narrative: building a national consensus for economic and social transformation.� �To be efficient, there is no emcee for this occasion � I�m the emcee�, Mr Amissah-Arthur said, eliciting laughter from the participants. As Chairman for the NEF, the Vice-President had earlier told the gathering that the forum aimed at turning �the short term challenges that we face into an opportunity for the future � into an opportunity for achieving transformation of economy in the medium term�. According to him, the idea of NEF developed earlier this year, when President John Mahama met Ghanaian businesses and private sector participants �to discuss how the micro-economic challenges and our plans for resolving them were impacting on their business�. Mr Amissah-Arthur said: �We probed them about what government could do to support their operations and how the private sector could create jobs for young Ghanaians. �These were private sector operators, overwhelmingly Ghanaian, who addressed their problems in a national context. �It became obvious that a general conversation � and not just a dialogue � was needed, and would benefit from the inclusion of the social partners, of political organisations of traditional authorities, religious leaders in all facets of the Ghanaian society.� Addressing concerns by the New Patriotic Party (NPP) that position papers had not been made available to the NEF participants, the Vice-President said the move was deliberate, in order not to impose the views of government on the forum. He explained that a concept paper had circulated for discussion at the forum. Mr Amissah-Arthur added that the short-term measures to restore fiscal balance - which were first unveiled by Finance Minister Mr Seth Terkper on April 1, 2014 - had been further "developed and refined to address the longer-term opportunities for the economy". �At the request of the President we have circulated the latest version of this home-grown plan to the group of chairpersons and facilitators for this meeting,� he said. Mr Amissah-Arthur stressed that, whereas the short-term measures had been developed and implemented, the government was determined to ensure that they did not affect considerations for the economy�s long-term prospects.