Accra (Greater Accra) 24 May ?99

Professor Evans Atta Mills on Sunday honoured 84 corporate institutions, which sponsored the just-ended 5th African-African American Summit in Accra.

The companies, put in categories of platinum, gold, silver and bronze, received certificates and citations.

Professor Mills described the response of corporate Ghana to the successful hosting of the summit as overwhelming, saying it took off a substantial portion of the nightmares and pressures that the summit brought on the country.

" ... government has been overwhelmed by the goodwill and nationalism displayed by corporate Ghana. You rose to the occasion, my dear friends, and proved yourselves worthy corporate citizens and residents of this great country of ours".

The 84 companies contributed 1.1 billion cedis, forming 80 per cent of the total budget of 1.8 billion cedis, the rest of which came from government.

Platinum sponsors gave 50 million cedis and above, while gold sponsors gave between 20 million and 40 million.

Silver sponsors were those companies who gave between 11 million cedis and 19 million cedis. The rest gave up to 11 million cedis.

Professor Mills said the summit was successful due to the immense corporate sponsorship received by the government.

Giving a background of the hosting of the summit, Prof. Mills said it was a problem since pressure was on government to cut down on expenditure.

"We were therefore in a quandary. How would we provide the necessary infrastructure and services to host an initially estimated 28 heads of state, representatives of governments and over 4,000 delegates without throwing the government's financial budget and budgetary programme out of gear?"

He thanked the summit secretariat, national preparatory committee and all the support service staff that were on hand to ensure that Ghana's image as a real business partner was never in doubt.

The Vice-President paid glowing tribute to the Ghanaian media, which, he said, "brought the summit closer to Ghanaians and the international community.

"You have proved yourselves able and concerned partners. We appreciate every drop of ink you used, every voice you raised and every website icon you clicked, to give the summit a global publicity", he added.

Professor Mills also singled out the La Palm Beach Hotel for special praise for its dexterity in getting prepared to host 10 of the 12 presidents who attended the Summit.

Mr Kwesi Ahwoi said he was impressed with the support given by everyone to see the event through, adding that "it shows how far we can go as a country if both government and the private sector come together to move the wheels of development".