Cape Coast, Sept. 26, GNA - Stakeholders from diverse sectors of the society on Friday evening began a three-day national forum aimed at building consensus on a long-term national development plan. The forum, which is being held under the auspices of the National Development Planning Commission (NDPC), will examine prospects and constraints facing the fiscal, financial and other services affecting the economy.

A communiqu=E9 issued by the NDPC and copied to the press stated that the dialogue, which is under the theme: "Financial Resources and Services for a Middle-Income Ghana", was intended "to provide a platform for consensus building on two aspects of the Long-Term National Development Plan". These are prospects and constraints facing the fiscal and financial services sector, especially the banking and monetary policy environment, and the balance of payment trends, implications of an export-led industrialisation policy based on modernised agriculture, and the broad policy alternatives open to Ghana to manage its balance of payments.

The forum follows a national symposium initiated by President John Agyekum Kufuor on the Growth and Poverty Reduction Strategy Two (GPRSII) held on May 9, 2006.

The NDPC said President Kufuor at that symposium "emphasised the need to develop a set of long-term policies and programmes for restructuring the existing fragile agricultural economy, modernising it and supporting its capacity to achieve accelerated growth towards attaining the national goal of middle-income status by the year 2015". Since then, the NDPC has held several workshops aimed at distilling a consensus of agreement and support for a common set of measures and policies designed to address the possibility of mobilising Ghana's enormous resources to realise the goal of transforming herself from Third World status to Middle-Income status in the coming decade. Topics slated for discussion include "Stability and Growth, the Challenges of a Transforming Economy"; "The External Economy and Balance of Payment"; "The Financial Services Sector - A Long-Term Perspective"; "Oil Taxation and Expenditure: A Long-Term Fiscal Policy for Ghana"; and The Crises in Global Financial Markets".