An economist, Dr John Gartchie Gatsi, says the incoming government must
move straight to work and not assume the lame posture that ‘everything
has been destroyed and they need time to restore them.’
He said the new government would have a relatively stable economy to
build on, as the hard decisions of the past two years such as a enhanced
debt and fiscal management strategies had started to yield modest
results, with increased outcomes expected this year.
“The orientation of the new government is equally important. The
economy is not ready for excuses, blame game as that does not allow any
government to settle down to work. The new government should be ready to
build on and not to assume the posture that everything is destroyed and
they are starting afresh,” Dr Gatsi stressed said.
Speaking in an interview with the GRAPHIC BUSINESS, Dr Gatsi
suggested that one of the first things was for the Nana Akufo-Addo led
government should clearly state its intentions of whether to continue
existing government projects and programmes or it would start new ones.
An important position to be known of the incoming government is about
the International Monetary Fund (IMF) programme with the country.
Policy formulation
He advised the new government to craft sound economic and social
policies to serve as a blueprint for its administration to meet the
hopes and expectations of Ghanaians.
“The policies of the new government should recognise many gains
recorded in fiscal management, reforms in the energy sector and
adherence to the rules on stability of contracts in the petroleum
sector,” Dr Gatsi said in an interview.
Commenting on the short to medium-term prospects of the economy, Dr
Gatsi, who is also a lecturer at the University of Cape Coast, said the
medium-term economic outlook had already been defined in the home-grown
policy framework which placed a lot of prospects in 2017 and 2018.
Already, the policy implementations have ensured some improved fiscal
and debt management outcomes which were expected to be scaled up
between this year and next year.
“Economic outlook of a country can only be based on concrete and
comprehensive policies which we are yet to know. It can also be observed
through specific policies put in place to either continue existing
programmes and projects or to discontinue them,” he stated.
Promised reforms
Currently, one of the targets of the IMF programme is for the country
to increase revenue mobilisation, but this flies in the face of
promises by the incoming government to drastically reduce taxes.
However, Dr Gatsi believes that the IMF programme could not be overly
renegotiated as some people were already calling for and that could
place a limitation on the execution of many of the reforms.
One district, one factory
The economist said although it was possible for the new government to
establish some selected and strategic factories, the one district one
factory would not be an easy goal to attain.
“It is impossible to employ all Ghanaians willing to work as
promised. But an inclusive and well-structured employment strategy to
progressively employ all Ghanaians will be a welcome news,” he said.
Job creation
Dr Gatsi said the job creation agenda should include any Ghanaian
with valid contracts with any state institution, as they were all
serving the good course of the country.
He said termination of contracts by Ghanaians cooking under the
School Feeding Programme, for instance, to be replaced by people close
to the new government was not a healthy idea that should be entertained.
“Those whose contracts have ended should leave in peace and the new
government should quickly learn to work with any Ghanaian, provided they
have valid contracts,” he advised.
No comments:
Post a Comment