Ghana and Netherlands on Friday renewed their agreement to expand the support base for Ghanaian small and medium scale enterprises under the Programme for Cooperation with Emerging Markets (PSOM) instituted four years.

The current agreement would be more liberal, as it did not require input of equipment or goods from Dutch origin, but insisted simply on value for money.

Signing the memorandum of understanding to that effect, Mr Arie C. A. Van der Wiel, The Netherlands Ambassador, said the PSOM, which sought to provide funds to Ghanaian companies interested to undertake such investment and trade projects, covered areas such as agro-processing, transportation, energy, and environment.

He said 500,000 Euros would be the average Netherlands support per project and investors would be expected to observe a high standard of corporate social responsibility.

Mr Van der Wiel said, however, that the expansion of the assistance or support would depend on the number of proposals that the Dutch government would receive from Ghanaian enterprises adding; "the agreement allowed for a consortium of companies to propose projects as long as there is at least one Ghanaian and one Dutch company among them".

He said PSOM projects try out on a pilot scale, new lines of production or production technology to find out its commercial viability in the country concerned and whether export quality products could be made.

Dr Kofi Konadu Apraku, outgoing Trade and Industry Minister, who signed on behalf of Ghana recounted Ghana's benefits from the programme and said: "Its renewal today vis-?-vis its expansion was a reflection of how successful it had been."

He appealed to interested local firms to see this initiative, which provided the impetus to economic growth and job creation as key to their success since it contributed significantly to the alleviation of poverty, provided the conditions were met.

Dr Apraku said PSOM was aimed basically at sharing some of the initial financial risks that companies faced when investing in new products and/or technologies in emerging markets in developing countries.

He reiterated government's commitment to ensure that beneficiary firms under the programme made judicious use of the support.