Accra, (Greater Accra Region) 16 Oct. Twenty-eight companies today donated items worth 171.4 million cedis to the Ghana Trade Fair Company (GTFC) towards the forthcoming Sixth Ghana International Trade Fair and Second Good Corporate Citizen Awards Ceremony. The donations were in the form of cash, sponsorships for advertisements, equipment and prizes. Major sponsors for the two events include New Times Corporation, Groove FM, Margins Company Limited, Wangara Hotel, Cocoa Processing Company, Papaye Fast Foods, Assemblies of God Literature Centre Limited, La Beach Hotel, IKAM, and the Agricultural Development Bank. The Fair will be under the theme: ''Investment : The Key to Ghana's Accelerated Economic Growth". It will focus on agriculture and food production, tourism, building and construction, mining and energy, transport and aviation, telecommunications, health care finance and finance systems. Colonel Seth Kwaw, Director-General of the GTFC in a welcoming address congratulated the donors for honouring their pledges. Col. Kwaw said from next year all participants will be required to use the ''shelf scheme'' for their stands because it is cheaper and easier to construct. The ''shelf scheme'' is a prefabricated board made with chip boards that can be joined with screws to serve as stands and shelves. "The cost of the shelf is cheaper and takes shorter periods to build than the wawa boards and nails in use now,'' he said adding that most of the time these are not completed in time. The GTFC said he was disappointed that most fairs start with only a few stands ready. "This is does not augur well for us in terms of development since this does not happen anywhere in the world. "I hope that we will all grow to appreciate the shelf scheme since this is what is being used worldwide". Mr. Frank Appiah, a marketing consultant and official of GTFC, said about 100 companies have so far confirmed their participation. "We are confident that this number will rise in the coming months to make the events a success".

GRI NEWSREEL (2) 16, OCT '97