Ho, Sept. 27, GNA - Dr Dawson Amoah has said strong competitive loca= l industries are necessary for rapid development and to prevent acts that would undermine the national stability. He said 93it is important for all of us to remember recent developmen= ts in Tunisia, Egypt, Libya and Syria that the increase in youth unemployment could derail any stable government."

Dr Dawson Amoah who is the Vice-President of the Association of Ghana Industries (AGI), gave the caution at a two-day seminar on the implementation of the AGI's Volta Regional action plan in Ho. He said it was important to develop policies that would address challenges undermining the competitiveness of local enterprises and their efforts to create jobs for young people.

Dr Amoah said these challenges include unfair competition from importe= d goods, poor physical infrastructure, high cost of credit, high cost of raw materials and obsolete machinery. He said many companies are folding up in Ghana because of their high unit cost of production and high prices of goods adding that the situation would further aggravate youth unemployment and brain drain. Dr Amoah said that was the reason why the AGI has been following with keen interest the developments concerning the Savannah Accelerated Development Authority (SADA), a project which he described as 93good vehic= le for developing the Northern parts of Ghana."

Dr Amoah appealed to the business community in the Volta Region to tak= e advantage of the newly opened AGI office in Ho adding that 93we cannot do business as usual and expect different results".