The Deputy Minister of Trade and Industry, Nii Lante Vanderpuiye, has signed a project document to kick-start the second phase of the Swiss-funded United Nations Industrial Development Organisation (UNIDO) trade capacity building programme that focuses on sustainable value chains for export.

The Swiss ambassador, Andrea Semadeni, signed on behalf of his Government.

The UNIDO Project 'Trade Capacity Building for Ghana' was set up in March 2007 and is funded by the Swiss Confederation through the State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO), designed as a stand-alone intervention to help Ghana meet its limited capacity to conform to international standards.

The objective of the project is to enhance the export performance of the country by creating conditions for strengthening supply capacities in selected agriculture and industry branches, establishing a credible conformity assessment infrastructure, and fostering integration into a multilateral trading system while at the same time, strengthening local consumer protection.

The first phase (2007-2012) was aimed at institutional strengthening through specific technical assistance in areas such as standardisation, testing, inspection and conformity assessment.

Beneficiaries include the Ghana Standards Authority, which obtained accreditation for its system certification body, increased its capacity in standard development, and upgraded its testing laboratories in areas of pesticide residue, mycotoxin and microbiology.

The Plant Protection and Regulatory Services Directorate under the Ministry of Food and Agriculture has also improved its inspection methods for exported fruits and vegetables, upgraded its seed-testing laboratory for analysis of quality seeds, and is a European Union competent authority in the field of horticulture.

Other beneficiaries of the trade capacity building programme are the Food and Drugs Authority and the Ghana Export Promotion Authority - which has an established national traceability system that ensures export horticultural products can always be traced back to the farms.

The second phase builds on the results achieved in the first phase, and expands the scope to ensure upgraded services reach private sector actors throughout the value- chain and that sustainable standards are promoted and implemented.

The project is aligned with the country’s poverty reduction strategy, the industrial sector support programme (2011-2015) and SECO’s country strategy 2013-2016.

By the signing, Switzerland has renewed its commitment to support the country’s economic development by providing the equivalent of US$5.35 million to enhance the export of fruit, cocoa, fish and wood products to UNIDO’s Trade Capacity Building programme for the country.

The current engagement is a four-year programme that aims at supporting Ghana’s integration into world markets by developing a competitive and sustainable export economy that is compliant with trade-related standards.

It is envisaged that the upgraded services will enhance the sustainability, quality and export competitiveness of the four value-chains (fruit, cocoa, fish and wood products) by ensuring compliance with international quality standards.

By Konrad Kodjo Djaisi