Parties to join debate in formulation of National Development Plan
The Director General of the National Development Planning Commission (NDPC), Dr Nii Moi Thompson, has called on political parties to fully participate in the national debate that will lead to the formulation of a 40-year National Development Plan.
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He stated that the participation of the major political parties in the process would ensure that the plan received a high degree of compliance from political parties that would rule the country.
Dr Thompson made the appeal when he started a process of meeting political parties to brief them on the ongoing national consultation on the long-term 40-year development plan which is scheduled to take place from 2018 to 2057.
At a meeting with the executives of the Convention People’s Party(CPP) in Accra, Dr Thompson said the national consultation which began with the Presidency, the leadership of Parliament and the Judiciary would be launched on August 4.
He said after the national launch by the President, the national consultation would start immediately throughout the country to collate information which will be sifted through to arrive at a common understanding on the way forward for the country.
He said the framework of the National Development Plan had identified six thematic areas around which the national consultation would take place.
He said the six areas included attitudinal change, public sector reforms and human capital development which would take into consideration the type of high education and training the country required.
The other areas identified were infrastructure development and its role in national development , land reforms and the role of youth in national development.
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Dr Thompson said the NDPC was taking advantage of the growing taste for Ghanaians to work together to launch the national debate and consultation on the type of society Ghanians wanted to fashion out to guide their destiny.
He said the plan envisaged a tolerant, free, just and prosperous society which is sustainable.
Dr Thompson said every political party was free to use its own strategy but at the end of the day the government would be judged according to how closely it had adhered to the framework of the national plan.
Madam Samia Yaba Nkrumah, the Chairman and Leader of the CPP, urged the commission to focus on the seven-year development plan of the CPP which was suspended with the overthrow of Dr Kwame Nkrumah.
She explained that the concern of the party was how the new development plan could work side by side the dictates of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) since the interest of the nation was not the interest of the IMF and other multi national corporations.
Madam Samia said for example that when a national plan is bent on providing jobs and building industries to employ the youth, the donor country would call for retrenchment and shutting down of local industries.
She, however, said that any plan that sought to support the control of the economy by Ghanians and made it a priority to create jobs for the youth would receive the full support of the CPP because that was in tandem with the suspended seven-year plan.