Koforidua, Oct. 7, GNA - The New Juaben Municipal Assembly is to build a permanent beads market near the Centre for National Culture in Koforidua with effect from next year. The market is also expected to provide facilities for the sale of artefacts to help develop the tourism industry in the New Juaben Municipality.

The Eastern Regional Minister, Mr Samuel Ofosu-Ampofo, said this when members of the National and Eastern Regional Executive of the Ghana Journalist Association(GJA) and the consultant of the association on the "Using the Media to Strengthen Business Advocacy" project, Mr Kwasi Afriyie-Badu of KAB Governance Consult called on the Minister on Monday.

The group was at the Regional Co-ordinating Council (RCC) to seek assurance from the Regional Minister and the RCC to continue with arrangements made by the GJA and the RCC for the promotion of Small and Medium Scale Enterprises (SME) as a way of promoting economic development and creation of employment in the region under the previous government.

Mr Ofosu-Ampofo said the RCC under his leadership would continue with all the arrangements reached under the project with his predecessor. He said during the just ended United Nations World Tourism Conference, the RCC supported the Eastern Regional Beads Makers Association and the Aburi Wood Cavers Group, two of the organizations that had benefited under the project to exhibit at the pavilion of the region at the conference.

Mr Ofosu-Ampofo said after 20 years of decentralization, the District and Municipal assemblies needed to move from only service provision to economic development of their districts and municipalities. The General Secretary of the GJA, Mr Bright Blewu, said the association decided to embark on the project because they identified the SMEs as an area that GJA could support in the economic development of the country.

He said ever since the project started, media focus on the challenges of SME's was on the increase and that was a good sign for the economic progress of the country.

Mr Afriyie-Badu appealed to the Regional Minister to draw the attention of the District and Municipal assemblies to engage the SME in the preparation of their fee fixing resolutions and their development programmes.

He said in spite of the Public Procurement Law the District and Municipal assemblies could find a way to generate business for the SME in their areas and appealed to the RCC to consider the inclusion of representatives of the SME to the assemblies during the selection of government appointees to the assemblies.