By Christabella Arko, GNA
Accra, Nov. 15, GNA — Mr Ken Ofori Atta, the
Finance Minister, has said government will continue to take deliberate and
strategic steps to accelerate the nation’s economic transformation.
He said the goal, which was consistent with
the medium-term aspirations of the Ghana Beyond Aid Programme, is to use
resources creatively and efficiently to build “a prosperous and self-confident
Ghana that is in charge of her economic destiny.”
Mr Ofori Atta said this whiles presenting
the 2020 Budget Statement and Economic Policy to Parliament on Wednesday.
He said the Ghana Beyond Aid agenda was
aimed at accelerating economic transformation based on rapid and inclusive
growth that would double the per capita income over a ten-year period.
”The accelerated transformation we seek
cannot be realised if we do business as usual. We must increase government
capacity to finance and manage the ambitious agenda that we have set for
ourselves and also radically improve the environment for the private sector”,
Mr Ofori Atta said.
He said government would significantly
increase domestic revenues in order to raise contributions to finance the
ambitious development agenda under the Ghana Beyond Aid without over-burdening
citizens with additional taxes.
He said currently, Ghana’s tax-to-Gross
Domestic Product (GDP) ratio of 12.9 per cent in 2018 was below the average of
other middle-income countries of 18 to 20 per cent.
Mr Ofori Atta said government has initiated
strategies which would begin to address the situation and these include the
expansion of the tax net through digitisation to improve identification of tax
payers and the efficient collection of both tax and non-tax sources of revenue.
He said to complement all the efforts
government was undertaking to make Ghana a much friendlier place for business
men and women, it has rolled out plans on an aggressive agenda to attract
Foreign Direct Investment (FDI).
He said according to the Bank of Ghana (BoG)
records, FDI flows into Ghana from 2016 to 2018 averaged $2.9 billion a year
and its percentage of GDP equated to around five per cent.
“I have no doubt that Ghana is well
positioned to become the number one destination for FDI flows in the medium to
long term for a host of reasons including its location, literacy rate, English
language, rule of law, strong macro-economic fundamentals, stable and peaceful
democracy, warm climate and warm hospitality”, he said.
Mr Ofori-Atta said cabinet has approved the
formation of an inter-ministerial committee to provide policy guidance for the
FDI agenda.
He said the mandate of the committee is to
put in place a comprehensive strategy and plan of execution on attracting FDI
flows going forward as well as identifying and packaging all the various
initiatives and policies that are already in place to help make Ghana an
attractive place to do business and attract FDI flows.
He said government has also built a
strategic partnerships that could be leveraged to attract the FDI.
These, he said, include “Africa Investment
Forum (AIF), Compact with Africa, the US “Prosper Africa”, UK-Ghana Business
Council, EU-Africa Business, China’s FOCAC, Japan’s TICAD, Korea’s KOAFEC, the
Asian Infrastructue Investment Bank (AIIB), Singapore, among others”.
He added that, all the measures on business
regulatory environment and the FDI agenda were part of a broader and ambitious
strategy to make Ghana a gateway to business in West Africa and Africa in
general- “a business, financial, and logistics hub in the region”.
GNA
