Money to be invested Into infrastructutre dev.

Front page, lead, August 23-2008

Story: Charles Benoni Okine

THE government will devote a large chunk of the money accrued from the sale of majority shares in Ghana Telecommunications Company (Ghana Telecom) to capital investments to enable both the present and the future generations to benefit from the sale, the Minister of Finance and Economic Planning, Mr Kwadwo Baah-Wiredu, has promised.
He cited the construction of 15 kilometres of tarred roads in each of the 230 districts of the country and the construction of first-class roads in all the cocoa-growing areas of the country as examples of such investments, and pointed out that those projects were spelt out in the 2008 budget statement and the government’s economic policy.
The sale of the GT shares was met with strong resistance from some civil society groups before Parliament gave approval for the government to raise the $900 million from the sale of 70 per cent of GT to the British telecom giant Vodafone.
A day after Parliament ratified the sale agreement, Vodafone made full payment of the amount into the government kitty in what is expected to stabilise the economy, which has seen some turbulence in recent times following the soaring prices of crude oil and the global food price hikes.
"The fact that we mentioned that the money to be realised from the sale will be used to support the 2008 budget does not mean all the money will be squandered to the benefit of only the present generation," Mr Baah-Wiredu said.
He did not rule out the use of some of the money to settle personal emoluments, payment of pensions and gratuities, among others, but noted that those expenditures were minor.
Mr Baah-Wiredu reiterated that the bulk of the money was meant to support infrastructural projects, which, when completed, would serve a great deal of purpose in the acceleration of the economy.
He said road construction was a fundamental key to economic growth and noted that these projects served a generational purpose.