President John Agyekum Kufuor on Saturday said government would soon establish an Export Development and Investment Fund to provide the required financing for exporters.

The fund, he said would specifically address research needs, infrastructure and other entrepreneurial activities.

President Kufuor announced this in an address read on his behalf by Vice President Alhaji Aliu Mahama at the 12th National Awards for Export Achievement at the Banquet hall in Accra.

The awards scheme instituted in 1989 by the government and administered by the Ghana Export Promotion Council (GEPC) is to boost exports from the Non-Traditional Export Sector.

About 400 exporters have been awarded so far and the exporter for 2000 was Cocoa Processing Company (CPC), Tema, which earned 24 million dollars.

President Kufuor said the Fund is to provide venture capital at concessionary rates to industries and together with other initiatives such as the proposed Technologies Information Network help businessmen to become globally competitive.

President Kufuor said the Export Action Programme for Garments and Textile in Ghana launched recently, is expected to generate 71,000 jobs for Ghanaians and an export revenue of about 3.4 billion dollars within the next four years.

He said about 25,000 farmers would be identified and assisted in the Integrated Action programme for Cassava Starch Production and Export, designed to develop the cassava industry in the country as a major vehicle for job creation and poverty reduction in the rural communities.

President Kufuor stressed the need to uphold the rule of law and create a legal system that would give confidence to businessmen in the settlement of trade and investment disputes for businesses to flourish.

He said businessmen would feel more comfortable to invest in the country when they are assured that business disputes would be impartially and expeditiously dealt with and pledged to ensure such conditions pertain in the economy.

President Kufuor commended the exporters whose ingenuity, fortitude and perseverance have to overcome the difficult economic climate to excel and announced that government would pursue initiatives for the processing of agricultural products in the Free Zone areas.

Dr Kofi Konadu Apraku, Minister of Trade and Industries said the major challenges facing Ghanaians exporters is not diversification of their products but how to diversify to other destinations, especially in the West African Sub-region.

He said while about 60 per cent of their products are exported to European markets only 21 per cent are sent to neighbouring countries as a result of the lack of uniformity in the rules and regulations, customs and other barriers put in their way.

Dr Apraku stressed the need for the exporters to find ways to balance the trade surplus between them and the neighbouring countries and be more innovative and productive. The Minister of Trade and Industries said there was a decline in the earnings in the non-traditional export sector from 404 million dollars in 1999 to 400 million dollars last year and this poses a challenge to both the facilitators and the exporters.

"We have to put our shoulders to the wheel to push the export sector to significantly higher levels of performance that will help meet the foreign exchange needs of the economy." he added.

Mr Edward Collins Boateng, Executive Secretary of the GEPC said market information is necessary to sustain the growth of the non-traditional exports and therefore, efforts would be made to strengthen the capacity of the Council to improve on its market information delivery system to provide the relevant and up-to-date market information to Ghanaian exporters.

He said the Council would also initiate and pursue programmes to improve access of Ghanaian products on the international market and maintain a strong presence there by removing bottlenecks to trade and thereby make Ghanaian products competitive on the international markets.

Mr Boateng said the human resource capacity of the exporters would continue to be developed to improve the professional outlook of the Ghanaian exporter to match the international competition.

He announced that the Council would strengthen its presence in the regions and districts to aggressively facilitate the export-related product development by working closely with the District Assemblies to assist the rural communities to develop export products.

"We will implement benchmarks to assist them benefit from their toils through equitable distribution of wealth created in the process and therefore, improve their living standards," he added.

More than 30 exporters were presented with awards at the ceremony.