The government would soon introduce a new guarantee loan scheme to enhance the rapid and sustained growth of small and medium scale industries to give real meaning to its golden age of business proposal.

Mr Abubakar Saddique Boniface, Deputy Minister of Trade and Industry, said under the Ghana Investment Fund that would be one of the 'friendly loan facilities' the government would guarantee long and short term loans with low interest rates to boost the activities of local industries.

He said this while inspecting some private companies and government institutions in Takoradi on Monday at the start of a three-day tour of the Western Region.

The tour forms part of a nationwide programme to familiarise himself with the operations of private companies with the view to formulating efficient and sustainable policies to enhance their growth.

Mr Boniface urged industrialists to take advantage of government programmes to expand their businesses and create more employment avenues.

He stressed the need for such companies to make conscious efforts to improve the quality of their products to enable them to remain in business in the face of competition.

"We should also make sure that we develop standards so that we are not thrown out of business due to external competition," he advised.

Mr Boniface said the government was determined to alleviate poverty and create wealth by embarking on stabilisation policies to generate employment by improving the private sector.

At the Ghana Rubber Estate Limited Factory at Agona, Mr Nti Adu-Bonsarfo, Finance and Administrative Manager, told the Deputy Minister that, the price of processed natural rubber on the world market was at its lowest in 50 years.

He said this was causing liquidity problems for the company, in which the government had 25 per cent shares and provided employment for about 700 people including plantation out-growers.

Mr Adu-Bonsarfo said 95 per cent of processed natural rubber produced by the company was exported to Europe and called for assistance to to improve upon operations.

The Deputy Minister inspected part of the 15,000 hectares of the plantation of which about 1,785 hectares belonged to out-growers.

He called for assistance to check galamsey operations, which, he said, were on the increase and adversely affecting the work of the company.