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Inaugurating a
two-day international conference marking the launch of a two
year regional project on competition policy and law, the
Deputy Minister of Trade, Industry, Private Sector
Development & President’s Special Initiatives of Ghana,
Hon’ble Kwaku Agyeman-Manu stressed on the commitment of the
Ghanaian government towards evolving competitive markets in
the country to achieve economic growth and development.
CUTS
International is implementing this project (entitled,
Strengthening Constituencies towards effective competition
regimes in select countries of West Africa, also referred to
as the 7Up4 project) in seven countries of West Africa, viz.
Burkina Faso, The Gambia, Ghana, Mali, Nigeria, Senegal and
Togo with support from the Department for International
Development (DFID), UK; International Development Research
Centre (IDRC), Canada; and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs,
Sweden. The project is being initiated through the
conference, being jointly organized by CUTS International,
India and ISSER, Ghana and held at the La Palm Royal Beach
Hotel, Accra, Ghana.
The Deputy
Minister emphasised that the project marks the start of a
historic journey for the countries involved and indeed the
ECOWAS region towards evolving better markets for economic
development and poverty reduction. Complementing the
initiative, he endorsed it would complement efforts being
made at the national and the regional level to improve the
business climate. He observed that, “The time has come to
institute modern laws and institutions that provide level
playing field across board, both at the national and
regional levels” in West Africa.
Earlier,
speaking at the occasion, the Honourable Ambassador of
India, Mrs. Ruchi Ghanashyam underscored the need for
strengthening south-south economic cooperation for achieving
better developmental objectives for developing countries.
She had alluded to various mechanisms through which India
has been forging cooperation with other developing countries
in order to share knowledge and enhance mutual capacities,
especially in the areas of education, trade, etc. A specific
mechanism that she referred to in her remarks was that of
‘triangular cooperation’ or ‘trilateral development
cooperation’ that involves technical assistance provision by
one developing country to the other, with support from a
third developed country. The fact that the above project was
an example of such a cooperation mechanism was also
highlighted.
Ernest
Aryeetey, Director, ISSER, Ghana asserted the need for
developing countries to evolve the right regulatory
environment and institutions to catalyse private sector
development. He endorsed the need for regulatory research to
inform policy in a developing country like Ghana, and was
pleased to be associated with the 7Up4 project (as the
partners institution of CUTS in Ghana), as the project
provided the opportunity for such objective research.
Mike Hammond,
Head of DFID, Ghana conveyed that the British government
recognised the need for a dynamic private sector to emerge
(especially in the developing world) for economic
development; and that an effective competition regime
constituted an important component of an enabling
environment that facilitates the emergence of a dynamic
private sector. He reiterated DFID’s commitment to
regulatory reforms in Ghana, as in other countries in the
region, and expected the 7Up4 project to be able to
contribute substantially towards that goal.
Secretary
General of CUTS International, Pradeep S Mehta in his
opening remarks had provided a detailed outline of the work
of CUTS in the areas of competition policy and law. He
indicated that CUTS is committed to assisting developing and
least developed countries of Asia and Africa to advocate for
competition reforms as a means to achieve economic
development and consumer welfare. CUTS has worked already in
20 countries across Africa and Asia, before the 7Up4
project, primarily assisting civil society, government and
business community to appreciate the need and benefits from
a healthy competition environment.
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