Kumasi, July 25, GNA- Mr. Antwi-Boasiako Sekyere, Deputy Minister of Employment and Social Welfare, has said that government was fully committed to create employment opportunities in various sectors of the economy to ensure socio-economic development. He noted that the nation's development depends to a large extent on the quality of the labour force, which is capable of utilising employment opportunities to transform natural resources into wealth creation. Mr. Antwi-Boasiako Sekyere was speaking at the opening of the First Quadrennial Delegates' Conference of the Union of Industry, Commerce and Finance (UNICOF) of the Ghana Trade Union Congress (TUC) in Kumasi on Friday.

The three-day conference on the theme: "Employment Creation and Decent Wage; The Key to Real Economic Development" is being attended by 515 delegates from all over the world.

He said government had demonstrated commitment and seriousness to the Roadmap for the implementation of the Single Spine Pay Policy in January 2010, adding that it had also successfully negotiated with organised labour and arrived at acceptable wages for the year. The Deputy Minister said "government will maintain and strengthen social dialogue and co-operation with social partners for the purpose of decent work in the domain of employment as well as promoting social protection to ensure that real gains of working people are protected". Mr. Antwi-Boasiako urged workers to adopt dialogue in their grievances handling process rather than resulting to industrial disputes, which affects productivity. Mr. Kofi Asamoah, Secretary General of the TUC said the union believed that the only sustainable way to reduce poverty and human misery in Ghana was to create more jobs for the people. He said employment creation should be a conscious policy goal of all stakeholders particularly government, in every fiscal year rather than focusing on attaining elusive single digits inflation. Mr. Asamoah stressed the need for Ghanaians to judge the performance of any government by the number of jobs created every year to help improve their incomes and livelihood. Mrs. Anima Wilson, Deputy Ashanti Regional Minister advised the union to use the occasion to adopt effective strategies to protect the rights and interests of its members. She asked the union to build confidence and self reliance among its members and raise their consciousness, critical development and analytical minds to promote participatory dialogue and democratic practices.

Mr. Francis Kofi Davoh, General Secretary of UNICOF said employment creation should form part of the Economic Growth Indicators of the country. He said data on labour market issues should also be made available to the public at all times.