Accra, Feb. 22, GNA - Mr James Appiah-Berko, President of Ghana Printers and Paper Converters Association (GPPA) on Tuesday called on the Government to support and promote local printing industries. He said the award of 60 per cent of the printing of textbook to local printers as proposed by the Ministry of Education (MOE) under its Textbook Policy in 2004 would boost the industry which is collapsing due to lack of government contracts.

"Since implementation of the policy, printing of textbooks awarded b= y the Ministry has been awarded to foreigners and this is collapsing the loca= l printing industry," he added. Mr Appiah-Berko made the call when members of the GPPA met with Mrs Betty Mould-Iddrisu, Minister of Education in Accra. The meeting discussed the challenges facing local printing industries and the adoption of pragmatic measures to alleviate them. He said failure to enforce the policy had been attributed to lack of printing capacity and low quality products contributing to the under development of the industry. Mr Appiah-Berko noted that with a joint collaboration between the Government and local printing industry, some bottlenecks facing the industr= y could be addressed to position it on a better footing to print 100 per cent of textbooks for schools. He commended government for abolishing the 15 per cent Value Added Tax on raw materials for printing that had created a level playing field for stakeholders in the industry to operate.

Mr Appiah-Berko appealed to the Minister of Education to set up a permanent Technical Committee to determine local printing cost per each textbook for printers to be included in their cost of production. Mrs Mould-Iddrisu, assured the association of government's support t= o promote and encourage the local printing industry. She said government would partner the association to adopt pragmatic measures to ensure the sustainability and improvement of the industry.