The Senior Minister Yaw Osafo-Maafo has called on the German government to support Ghana to deepen programmes that inures to the comprehensive development of the private sector.
He noted that looking at the challenges confronting the nation the only best alternative is to mobilize resources to increase the capacity of the private sector to assume the business leadership role in governance.
He made the call when the German Ambassador to Ghana Christoph Retzlaff paid a courtesy call on him last Friday.
Osafo-Maafo recalled the special support that Germany in 2001 under President Schutt gave to Ghana during the country’s decision to explore the HIPC opportunities to provide some leverage for the then new government under President Kufuor when he was the Finance Minister.
“The time has come again for your country to come to our assistance this time round towards developing our private sector for it to be resilient, specific and more focused on the issues that will make Ghana tackle the issues of unemployment in the country,” he noted.
The Senior Minister told the Ambassador that unemployment at all levels is one major headache which calls for hard work and commitment from all to address; stating that the public and civil service sector employment is choked and even over-staffed.
“There is little opportunity in the public sector to create jobs for the teeming unemployed youth and the only way out is to assist the private sector to lead in this agenda of job creation. There is huge potential in the private sector to explore and our focus will be there for them to be the real job providers. So I urge Germany to as usual come in to partner with us on this drive”, he added.
He noted that another basic economic challenge facing the country is the huge public debt which is in the range of 9% of GDP by cash and 10.2% by commitments. This to him poses a lot of challenges to the government as there is virtually no fiscal space to pursue the economic policies outlined.
On his part the German Ambassador Retzlaff indicated that it is an honour to be hosted by the Senior Minister. He was very proud about Ghana stating the country remains a strong partner to Germany.
He said Chancellor Angela Merkel will invite President Akufo-Addo to this year’s G20 meeting in Berlin. He said the German government will use the occasion to organize investor roundtable forum of heavy weight German companies where President Akufo-Addo will be given the unique opportunity to come and showcase the investment opportunities in Ghana.
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