Kumasi, May 30, GNA - The Ashanti Regional Co-ordinating Council (ARCC) has taken steps to promote Micro and Small Scale Enterprises (MSCs) in the region to enhance the business environment. This will enable the private sector to play its role as the engine of growth and development.

Mr. Ernest Yaw Kwarteng, Regional Co-ordinating Director of the RCC, said this on Wednesday in Kumasi at a meeting between some officials of the RCC and the National Executive of the Ghana Journalists Association (GJA). The discussions centred on how the GJA is using the media to structure business advocacy and policy making in the SMEs and address their concerns.

They also discussed the involvement of district assemblies on fee fixing processes, rates taken from the private sector and dialogue with them to become sensitive to the needs of the sector. Mr. Kwarteng said significant actions taken to enhance the private sector included signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the German Development Corporation, GTZ, to promote Local and Regional Economic Development (LRED) in the region. He said the RCC also intended to educate public sector agencies through training programmes to move hand in hand with the private sector and that the private sector would also benefit from LRED. Mr. Bright Blewu, General Secretary of GJA, assured the RCC that the media would contribute to the developmental process and said journalists would not only be watchdogs but would also help the sectors to alleviate poverty.

Mr. Kwasi Afriyie Badu, Chief Executive Officer of KAB Governance Consult, appealed to the media to help educate the public on government policies so as to enable them hold public officials accountable.