Graphic Group seeks solutions to trade imbalance
The Graphic Communications Group Limited on Tuesday created a platform for experts and stakeholders in the export business to deliberate on how to maximise returns from the country's exports.
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It brought together three former Ministers of Trade and Industry and management of dozens of export-oriented companies to discuss the challenges confronting the export business, suggest solutions and reach consensus on the strategy the country should adopt to maximise returns from the sector.
The meeting was led by the GRAPHIC BUSINESS, the business and financial newspaper of Graphic, with support from Fidelity Bank Limited.
The breakfast meeting, which was the second in a series, was on the theme: 'Maximising value of exports to improve Ghana's trade balance.'
The Managing Director of Graphic, Mr Kenneth Ashigbey, said in his opening remarks that the initiative was Graphic's contribution towards the betterment of society.
He urged corporate Ghana, especially the manufacturing companies, to produce goods that could be exported, explaining that it was only through increased exports that the country could avoid the series of economic challenges such as the recent fall in the value of the cedi and its repercussions on the country.
The outgoing Minister of Trade and Industry, Hon. Haruna Iddrisu, assured players in the sector of government's support but added that support in the form of funding to export businesses would only go into projects and businesses that had proven to be viable.
He also advised financial institutions to increase funding to manufacturing companies given that the sector held the key to the trade imbalance that the country is currently battling.
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Trade imbalance is the difference between the value of imports and exports of a country.
Ghana's trade position has been in the negative since the 1950s mainly as a result of the over dependence on imported goods to the detriment of locally produced ones.
In 2008 for instance, the deficit was US$5 billion but spiralled to US$20 billion in 2013 following increased importation of capital, intermediary and consumer goods.
Plugging the deficit to achieve even trade or trade surplus will require that the country increases its exports while strategically decrease its appetite for imports, especially those imported for consumption.
Present at the meeting were the Minister of Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration and former minister of Trade, Ms Hanna Tetteh, Mr Kojo Alan Kyeremanteng, and Dr Kofi Konadu Apraku; both former Ministers of Trade and Industry and presidential flag bearer hopefuls of the opposition New Patriotic Party.