Mr. Rashid Pelpuo has clarified comments attributed to him that the government was not going to protect local businesses against competition brought by their foreign counterparts.

The Minister of State at the Presidency in-charge of Public-Private Partnerships was said to have made the statement at a round table discussion which has raised eyebrows in the business community especially among local businesses and members of the Association of Ghana Industries, who have already condemned the statement.

In a rejoinder, Mr. Rashid Pelpuo pointed out, “without a fuller explanation the story will be thoroughly misleading and in bad taste.”

Mr. Pelpuo on the Citi fm last week noted that allowing competition will promote an efficient, robust and vibrant local industry and that the local companies should step up their game.

Read the rejoinder below

I will be grateful if you can read my rejoinder to a report about a statement I made emanating from a Newspaper which your radio station was first to report and discussed in your very popular morning show.

The statement I was said to have made was at a Business Forum organised by the BCIU. The report was to the effect that I said Government will not protect Ghanaian businesses against foreign businesses.

I believe that without a fuller explanation the story will be thoroughly misleading and in bad taste. The background to it all is that before I went into the said program to speak, I was confronted with the question, why Government will not protect Ghanaian companies and make laws and set up more trade barriers to exclude foreign companies from participating in our market? Because I was talking to business people I thought it was important to use that platform to explain the position.

My explanation was that though there is a need to protect our local companies, Government was not in the mood to make such laws as to prevent foreign participation in our market. My view was that there are international trade laws to which Ghana has subscribed, which allow us to set up some tarrifs and levies on foreign products coming into our country. However, tariffs, duties and other fees and levies normally have their limits according to international standards

In the case of some specific goods, Ghana has exceeded the international acceptable limits.

In the opinion I was projecting, if after applying all the levies and fees etc, we still have our companies not being competitive enough, the solution to business will not be able to exclude other companies, I therefore indicated that the solution will be in creating the needed enabling environment to support Ghanaian businesses.

The number one priority of most businesses in Ghana is the need for capital and the injection of the right type of technology to make their products competitive. Many will want business linkages to enable them have access to a wider market.

The idea therefore will be to support them through financial innovations that will help small and medium size enterprises to have easy access to finance to support their businesses whiles we deal with the need to improve cheaper source of power for them.

I also mention that the Government will implement the five flagship projects of the Private Sector Development Strategy II (PSDSII) which in the main will address all the above mentioned areas.

I believe that in trying to put this across I may have given the wrong impression especially because I was speaking extempore.

I want to assure the Ghanaian Public that I will always work to protect our common interest and project the commitment of government to develop the private sector for which reason the President of the Republic His Excellency John Dramani Mahama has appointed me as Minister of State at His Office.

I Thank you for your kind attention.