Koforidua, Oct. 24, GNA - The Eastern Regional cultural week has been opened at Koforidua under the theme "salvaging the Ghanaian Economy through our cultural products".

The weeklong programme aims at encouraging Ghanaians to patronise made-in-Ghana products in order to improve upon their socio-economic conditions of the people.

Exhibitors, who would come from the Eastern Region, would exhibit various products like clothing, beads, and herbal medicines as well as various food items.

In a speech read on his behalf, the Eastern Regional Minister, Dr Francis Osafo Mensah stressed the need for Ghanaians to take a critical look at alien culture, which was creeping into the country. He said such culture could not in anyway reinforce indigenous culture and make it more progressive to improve the quality of life of our people.

Dr Mensah mentioned the mass spraying of cocoa, introduction of hi-tech fertilizer, and the upward revision of cocoa producer price as some of the NPP government's strategies designed to break the "vicious cycle" of poverty among farmers and the rural people and expressed the hope that farmers would embrace such initiatives to boost agriculture.

He, however, stressed the need for constant interaction between research institutions, the end users and farmers so that more benefit could be derived from new and improved methods of agriculture.

The Regional Director of National Commission on Culture, Mr Kwaku Ankamah, noted that national policy planning has over the years taken little or no cognisance of culture as an inevitable element in national development.

"A nation can never develop without paying much attention to its culture. It is only our cultural products that can salvage the economy of Ghana", he added.

Mr Ankamah expressed the hope that Parliament would come out with a legislation that would ensure that local matereials were used in all government projects.