President John Dramani Mahama on Thursday said in spite of the numerous challenges the country had encountered during his first year in office as President, he was resolute that government would fix the economy to an appreciable level.

He said in spite of the economic difficulties including the energy crisis, labour unrests, outbreak of market fires amongst others, he was resilient and resolute to deal with these challenges and set the economy on a sound footing.

He said there was the need to put in place systems to fight corruption and that measures had been put in place to minimize it by dealing with individuals involved in such acts regardless of their political or religious affiliations.

President Mahama said this in response to calls by the President of the Upper East Regional House of Chief, Naba Sigri Bewong, for President Mahama to tackle issues of corruption with seriousness.

President Mahama who is in the Upper East Region for a two-day working visit, said his administration had the will to fight corruption, adding that he would provide leadership in dealing with acts of corruption.

He, therefore, called on all to rise to the occasion in dealing with the canker. According to the President, the economy was rapidly responding to the various measures initiated by government, adding that many more initiatives had been taken in the 2014 budget to strengthen the economy further and ultimately make it robust.

"There are several projects that would be undertaken under the 2014 budget with one of the major focuses being road networks in the country," he said, adding that the Bolgatanga/Bawku road would be tackled.

He said a Regional Hospital for the Upper East had been earmarked for construction under the China-Exim loan facility, and the distribution of 200,000 solar lamps to rural communities without access to electricity was underway. President Mahama said the Pwalugu Tomato Factory would be revamped.

Earlier, he inspected land acquired for the Regional Aerodrome Project expected to take off for domestic air transport in the region.