The Ghana Investment Promotion Centre (GIPC) has since 2013 organized a series of quarterly breakfast meetings with Chief Executive Officers (CEO’s) of various companies in Ghana. The objective of the series is to develop dynamic and innovative solutions to some economic challenges to further enhance government policies.
This initiative, introduced by the CEO of GIPC, Mrs. Mawuena Trebarh, provides a great platform for business leaders to network with their peers, interact with each other and deliberate on issues geared towards influencing government policy formulation at the highest level. The GIPC’s Quarterly Business Breakfast Meetings for CEOs’ has grown strong over the years.
The Centre on November 14, 2016 was privileged to have His Excellency President John Dramani Mahama personally host the 12th edition, of the CEO’s Breakfast Meeting at Labadi Beach Hotel to interact with the Ghanaian Business community as well as discuss pertinent issues relating to the private sector of Ghana.
The event which brought together CEO’s from 61 companies from all key sectors saw the President use the opportunity to provide reasons for the “tough” decisions he has had to take, assuring a cross section of business leaders of better times ahead. The CEO’s present at the meeting were from companies in the pharmaceutical, agriculture and food processing, information and communication technology, energy, steel, and automobile industries. Others were from banking and finance, construction and the hospitality and tourism sector.
Touching on three key areas, which were: stabilising the economy; resolving the power crisis; and restoring socio-economic infrastructure, President Mahama told the business community that Ghana’s economy is resilient and stronger than it was in 2013.
“We are blessed because we suffered our problems earlier before the recession and as a result of that we started structural reforms at the right time. You notice that our economy is showing some more resilience at a time when everybody is facing economic headwinds,” he said.
The President added that with a relatively stable currency in 2016, and the introduction of the Public Debt Management Strategy, that tries to control government borrowing, government is trying to create a situation where it does not crowd out the private sector and thus help reduce interest rates.
As part of the IMF programme, Government is also working on a public debt management strategy to ensure a reduction in the incident of the public debt. From a high of about 73 percent of GDP to about 67 percent currently, Government will continue to work towards ensuring the public debt drops further.
President Mahama also assured the private sector of more support to SMEs, as well as industries that help in import substitution, like the pharmaceutical sector, so that government can help in shoring up foreign exchange reserves.
The President added that Ghana has a history of peaceful, transparent and successful elections and he believes that this seventh election under the fourth republic is going to be no different. He also pledged to engage more with the private business community soon and lauded the GIPC for their initiative in bringing together the business community to discuss pertinent issues and inform policy decisions.