The Association of Ghana Industries (AGI) has announced that the fourth edition of its Local Content Exhibition and Conference will take place from October 21 to 24, 2013 at the Accra International Conference Centre.

The event, intended to promote business between local and international companies, is themed “Making Local Content Work”.

At a media launch in Accra, president of the association Nana Owusu Afari said the scope of the event has been expanded from the oil and gas, energy and mining sectors to include the housing sector.

“In fact, the issues of local content have been with us as a nation since independence --except that they seem to have gained limelight with the discovery of oil and gas. The inclusion of the housing sector to other equally important sectors like mining and energy attests to this, and we need to have a broader perspective of local content than limiting it to oil and gas,” Nana Afari said.

“Among the activities planned for the conference are presentations and discussions of cutting-edge developments that will open up good vistas of matchmaking in these four essential sectors of our economy. I therefore urge all businesses to take advantage of this platform and quickly contact the AGI Secretariat on how to participate in the conference and in the exhibitions,” Nana added.

Vincent Oppong Asamoah, Deputy Minister for Works and Housing who launched the event, thanked the AGI for including the housing sector and pledged government’s commitment to ensuring the use of local materials in the construction industry.

“I use this platform to charge the shakers and movers of the building and construction sector to popularise the use of local raw materials. We have a lot of examples to learn from in many countries over the world, where they rely 100 percent on local raw materials for most of their building and construction projects. China and India are two countries we can learn from in this regard,” the Minister said.