Wa, June 29, GNA - Strategically located information centres among the 74 information centres closed down in various parts of the country for sometime now, are to be re-opened and equipped to enhance the dissemination of government policies and programmes in the rural areas.

All such centres are to be furnished, provided with computers and stocked with up-to- date publications on government policies, programmes and activities.

Ms. Shirley Ayorkor Botchwey, deputy Minister of Information made this known when she addressed the staff of the Information Services Department (ISD) at Wa on Tuesday, as part of her one-day familiarisation tour of department and agencies under her ministry in the Upper West region.

She said the centres would also serve as means through which the government would obtain feedback of the people on its policies, actions and programmes in order to know the views of the people on what it was doing.

Ms. Botchwey urged the staff of the department to be abreast with current events and issues to enable them to effectively explain government policies and actions to the people, particularly those in the rural areas.

Ms. Botchwey also asked the officers to effectively counter negative interpretations given to certain government actions and decisions by its opponents to the rural people, usually the favourite target of opponents of the government.

She reminded the officers that they have a shared role in national development efforts and asked them to live up to their responsibilities as information officers.

The deputy Minister said, the country needs the participation of all to develop, adding they could only do this if the people understood what the government was doing.

Ms. Botchwey also announced plans by the information communication technology department to organize a series of training programmes for personnel of the technical department of the ISD, to bring them in line with modern trends, and also enable them to handle and carry out repairs on the department's equipment.

The deputy Minister inspected the offices of state-owned media houses and interacted with their staff.

They are the Ghana News Agency, Radio Upper West FM station in Wa, New Times Corporation, and Graphic communications Group Limited.