Veep urges JICA to help build the private sector

Spread, April 24/ 2008

Story: Charles Benoni Okine

VICE-President Alhaji Aliu Mahama has urged the Japan International Corporation Agency (JICA) to post some of its volunteers to the country to private industries to help build the private sector.
“While the government appreciates the enormous support of JICA for the public sector, we will also be happy if you could post some of your volunteers to help grow the private sector in the country,” he added.
Alhaji Mahama made the call when 12 new Japanese volunteers paid a courtesy call on him at the Castle, Osu, yesterday.
He said the government had been working hard over the last seven years to improve the expertise of the private sector because “the private sector is the engine of growth”.
He said Ghana was working relentlessly to become a middle-income country by 2015 and to attain that target smoothly, the role of the private sector was inevitable.
Alhaji Mahama said the private sector’s contribution to the economy of Japan was a force to reckon with and expressed the hope that should that expertise be shared with those in Ghana, it would go a long way to boost the economy.
He expressed the gratitude of the government and the people Ghana to the Japanese government for the volunteer support in many areas, particularly in education.
“In many areas of the country, your volunteers have been able to demystify the learning of mathematics and science in the minds of children,” he said.
Alhaji Mahama said this had been encouraging the children to erase the phobia of mathematics and science off their mind because for the country to be industrious, the learning of science and mathematics was unavoidable.
The Vice-President, who was visibly elated at the way the new volunteers expressed themselves in the local languages of the areas they had been posted to, encouraged them to give their best just like their predecessors.
He further encouraged them to endeavour to learn the culture and master the language of the people they found themselves among to enable them to be able to communicate and mingle well with the people.
Alhaji Mahama pledged the support of the government to ensure that the volunteers had a fruitful stay in the country to contribute their quota towards the uplift of the country.
Mr Yataka Nakumura, Counsellor, Head of Mission of the Japanese Embassy in Ghana, who presented the volunteers to the Vice-President, said Ghana hosted the highest number of Japanese volunteers in the world.
That, he said, was as a result of the friendliness and hospitality of the people, as well as the peace and stability that the country enjoyed.
He expressed the hope that the relationship between the two countries would grow stronger.