Accra, Feb 4, GNA - The Ghana Export Promotion Council (GEPC) is to implement interventions to increase the growth of the country's non-traditional exports from the current 1.4 billion dollars to five billion dollars by 2015.

To this end, the GEPC has been training its staff as well as stakeholders within the Small and Medium Enterprises (SME's) sector to equip them with the requisite knowledge on product development to meet the expectations of the changing demands of customers across the globe. Mr. Kwadwo Owusu Agyeman, Chief Executive of the GEPC, who announced this at the presentation of Export Marketing Plans to pilot SME in Accra on Thursday, said despite efforts, the country's trade volume with her international partners remained low due to inability of local producers to meet the changing trends of consumers.

The presentation marked the end of a six-month intensive training and capacity transfer course for staff of the GEPC and other stakeholder institutions active in the export sector. The training which aimed at enhancing easier access of Ghanaian exports to the European Union (EU) markets was a product of collaboration between the GEPC and the Netherlands Centre for the Promotion of Imports from Developing Countries (CBI).

Mr. Agyeman, whose speech was read for him by Mr. Gerald Nyarko-Mensah, Director of General Promotions at the GEPC, said in view of this, the GEPC was undergoing a restructuring and re-branding process to strengthen its capacity and public appeal to deliver customer and demand-driven services to the exporting community.

He said the GEPC was poised to turn around the non-traditional export sector by entering into strategic alliances and partnerships with world-class organizations to boost the country's level at the EU markets which contributed to about 40 per cent revenue to her non-traditional export.

He said this year, the GEPC would again partner with the CBI to implement a Business Support Organization Development module called Strategic Planning to strengthen its corporate capacities in export development and promotion towards Europe. Mr. Lambert Verhulst, representative of CBI in Ghana, said increased production only was not the panacea for high revenue but proper planning to make the products appealing and attractive to a wider degree of customers. Mr. Verhulst said the level of the training provided would greatly enhance the capacities of the SMEs to improve their trade on the international market. 4 Feb. 10