Accra, June 20, GNA - Mr Kwabena Agyei Agyeppong, Press Secretary to President John Agyekum Kufuor on Monday urged Ghanaians to have confidence in the New Patriotic Party (NPP) Administration. He said Ghana was on the right track and President John Agyekum Kufuor's Administration was prepared to confront the challenges facing the country.

"The Government is blazing the trail through sterling leadership, good governance and international recognition and support," he added in a statement issued from the Office of the Press Secretary in Accra. Mr Agyepong, who is also the Presidential Spokesman, said the time had come for Ghana and Africa in general to change the negative perceptions.

On the report on Ghana presented to the just-ended African Peer Review Mechanism (APRM) Forum held in Abuja, Nigeria, Mr Agyepong said the confidence the Government had in its administration had embolden it to open itself for the scrutiny.

"Ghana being a developing country will certainly face flaws in its administration but by opening ourselves in the first place to be scrutinized shows the Government's commitment, readiness and preparedness to adequately redress all deficiencies", he said. Mr Agyepong called on the mass media to focus on the positive developments in Ghana instead of focusing on the negative issues most of the time.

He said the proposed debt cancellation was a major and significant step towards greater achievements, adding "as part of the debt cancellation, the world's most industrialized countries are pushing for fairer trade to ensure fair competition on all Continents and Africa specifically".

Mr Agyepong said he was optimistic that with Africa's inability to compete with the developed world, the debt cancellation would go a long way to peg Africa on level terms with the rest of the world. He cited Ghana's 70 million dollars exports under the Africa Growth and Opportunities Act (AGOA) as a positive measure of the seeming satisfaction with Ghana's products and exports by the international market.

The Presidential Spokesman said investment were pouring into Ghana and mentioned ALCOA's support for the Volta Aluminium Company (VALCO), the re-location of one of France's largest fruit juice company in Ghana and the presence of the mining giant Newmont which had provided more than 2,000 jobs for the youth and re-energised the rural economy. 20 June 05