Deputy Trade and Industry Minister, Herbert Krapah, has tasked all institutions in the trade sector, both public and private sector, to trigger the various outlined interventions that could drive the successful implementation of the National Export Development Strategy (NEDS).
Addressing stakeholders at the NEDS/AfCFTA National Implementation Workshop in Accra, he said the state exports development strategy is a blueprint for transforming the nation’s export revenues and must be given the needed support to make it work.
“We cannot implement the NEDS without institutional collaboration. One that recognizes that parties invited to the table truly have something to offer, and will give everything they can to make the strategy successful.”
He added: “If after all the agreements, and protocols, and annexes, and meetings, and conferences, we do not add value to our abundant and begging natural resources for export, we have failed, and I am confident that we will not fail.”
The NEDS seeks to expand and diversify the nation’s supply base and production capacity with emphasis on processing and value addition; improve the policy, regulatory and legislative environment; and build and expand the required human capital for industrial export development.
The minister commended GEPA for leading the charge thus far, and urged them to do even more in achieving what he described as an ambitious and audacious target.
He added: “We have built enough momentum for take-off and we must do so with only one outcome in mind: a successful implementation.”
Chief Executive Officer of GEPA, Dr. Afua Asabea Asare, in her welcome speech, reiterated the call for deepened engagement and support from the trade sector: “We need to all put our hands on deck to deliver the nation Ghana from its current state of dependency on imports and this can only be achieved through tackling the situation from the grass roots,” she said.
She indicated that GEPA was charting an integrated approach not only in terms of finding the right mix but also the need for partnerships for a groundbreaking approach to implement the strategy.
“Export matters: it matters for job creation, poverty reduction, and sustainable development. We can only achieve this when we work together,” she added.