Accra, Aug. 24, GNA -- Private Enterprises Foundation (PEF) on Thursday challenged organised labour and civil society groups to develop the capacity of their members to enter into productive ventures that would accelerate the economic development of the country.

Dr Osei Boeh-Ocansey, Director-General of the PEF, said more often than not, civil society had considered itself as different from the private sector operator whereas in actual fact civil society and organised labour were part of the private sector.

Contributing at a Mid-Year Review of the Budget Statement and Economic Policy of Government for this year, Dr Boeh-Ocansey said it was necessary for trade union organisations to develop the capacity of their members and to put them in productive ventures other than fighting for the unskilled low income earner to earn as much as the skilled worker. He said the civil society could not use the Government machinery to be measuring up what the private sector was doing and to look for loopholes that existed within the system to score points.

=93It is unfortunate that many people will not like to venture into risks that were required of a private venture.

Dr Boeh-Ocansey said it was only eight per cent of the population that was doing actual business and paid tax on which the rest of the people depended for development.

He said Government should have to make agriculture, which was dwindling from 4.1 per cent to 3 per cent per annum, attractive by reducing the risks involved in the industry. 24 Aug. 06