General News of Sunday, 26 January 2014

Source: GNA

Mahama to set up inter-ministerial follow-up taskforce

President John Dramani Mahama has said Government would soon hold inter-ministerial discussions to set up a special taskforce to monitor and evaluate all the bilateral agreements government had signed for the benefit of Ghanaians.

He said the objectives of signing bilateral agreements were to ensure that Ghanaians benefits. He said the monitoring and evaluation would give the Government an insight of every organisation and how beneficial such organisations could be to Ghanaians.

President Mahama, who was interacting with the presidential press corps on Saturday after attending the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, said 15 bilateral agreements were signed between Ghana and other governments and individual organisations.

He was met on arrival at the Kotoka International Airport by Vice President Paa Kwesi Bekoe Amissah-Arthur, Mr Prosper Douglas Bani, Chief of Staff, Alhaji Baba Kamara, Senior Presidential Advisor, and Ministers of State among other dignitaries.

Earlier in the week, President Mahama had concluded discussions in Abu Dhabi with the United Arab Emirates' TAQA National Petroleum Company to construct an additional 300 megawatts power plant at Aboadze in the Western Region among other deals.

Although he declined to disclose the contents of the bilateral, President Mahama, however, mentioned that a giant German Pharmaceutical Company had expressed interest in establishing rural pharmacies in most strategic communities in the country.

The President said he also attended a special session on the New Vision for Agriculture, an area, he added, could create numerous job opportunities for the teeming youth of the country in the coming years.

He explained that by 2050, Africa's population would be two billion, a situation that, he added, would increase the investor interest on the continent and gave the assurance that Ghana and her contemporaries would take that advantage to harness their potentials and establish the necessary synergies to enhance socio-economic development.

President Mahama said most of the bilateral agreements hinged on energy and Government would put the Ghana Gas project on stream and seek support from others to meet the country’s 2016 target of producing 5,000 megawatts of energy.

He said Ghana had become a destination of investment as many had expressed interest in doing business and Government would continue to provide the necessary support that would ensure flourishing business in Ghana and beyond.