Accra, June 20, GNA - Ghana's development partners have pledged to scale up the level of support to the country from 1.2 billion dollars to 1.4 billion dollars, annually over the next four years. This represents an estimated 5.7 billion dollars between 2007 and 2010.

These were contained in a communique issued at the end of the two-day Ghana Consultative Group Annual Partnership Meeting held in Accra on Wednesday.

Mr Kwadwo Baah-Wiredu, the Finance and Economic Planning Minister, and Mr Mats Karlsson, the World Bank's Country Director, jointly chaired the meeting, which brought together representatives of the development partners, Ministers, Members of Parliament, private sector and civil society.

The communiqu=E9 said the Government confirmed that spending on the Ghana Poverty Reduction Strategy Two (GPRS II) priority programmes from domestic sources was expected to reach at least 5.8 billion dollars over the next three years.

It conveyed the development partners satisfaction with Ghana's achievements related to poverty reduction as reported by the Ghana Statistical Service and communicated their hope that the coming year would see even stronger progress in meeting the aspirations of the people.

Ghana's last 15 years of growth and poverty reduction tells one of Africa's success stories.

The country's past 15 years, especially 2001 to the present have been characterised by improving economic policies, accelerating growth, massive poverty reduction and rising amounts of aid that followed better performance.

A few African countries have shown this performance. The partners however, noted that significant challenges remained if Ghana was to consolidate its gains and further accelerate economic growth and these, they said included closing the major infrastructure gaps, especially in energy, water and sanitation and rural roads. The communiqu=E9 said the Government expressed strong appreciation for the efforts of the partners to support the interests of all the people in the country.

The participants would convene again in June 2008 to take stock of the evolving Ghana Partnership, it added.