Accra, July 22, GNA - Mr Armah Kofi Buah, the Deputy Minister of Energy, on Friday said parliament had approved the formation of Ghana National Gas Company to manage the sector.

He said the company would see to the transportation and development of infrastructure in the oil and gas sector.

Mr Buah was speaking in Accra at the quarterly transformational semina= r organized by the Young Professionals and Youth Coalition Initiative(YpYc), an NGO, on the theme: 93The Future of Ghana's Oil and Gas Development, Outlook for Energy: A View to 2030."

He said the government was focusing on how to get the citizenry to effectively participate in the day to day activities of the industry to improve the economic standards in the country. The Deputy Minister said the development of the country's gas resource= s would benefit the domestic market through power generation, fertilizer production and the petrochemical industry. Mr Chris Wilmot, the President of WCW International Holding, urged the government to use information and communication technology to transform the oil and gas industry to enhance the development of the sector. Mr Buah called on the government to engage some of its human resources in areas of oil and gas research for improved transformation in the industry.

He said as an emerging country in the industry, the youth had an important role to play and called on the youth to develop the interest in that field.

Mr Andrews Osei Okrah, President of YpYc, said the organisation had created a platform and served as a young professional think-tank to share ideas on national issues and nation building to deliver national youth development.

He said the seminar also educated and developed the mindset of the youth to be generational thinkers and nation-centred people who were filled with patriotism and promoted young professionals' engagement and involvem= ent to influence nation building. "We also assist young professionals to secure jobs to pursue their career that contributes to nation building and empower them on self-empowerment to reduce over reliance and dependency on government," h= e added.

Mr Okrah said the organisation believed in values including nation first, patriotism, integrity, honesty, serving humanity and professionalism= .. Mr Sam Smooth, Chairman of Gulf of Guinea Energy Fund, commended the country for its good governance system and urged the citizenry to learn bes= t practices in the oil and gas industry.