Vice-President Alhaji Aliu Mahama on Friday stressed the need for diversification of the country's economy to achieve sustainable development, saying over-reliance on cocoa and gold for revenue to run the economy was harming development.

He said dependence on the two commodities over the years had rendered the country vulnerable, necessitating government turning attention to development partners and donors for support in managing the affairs of the economy.

It is in this direction that government was providing assistance to Small and Medium Scale enterprises to give them the necessary grounding to form the core of the economic and industrial renaissance of the country.

Vice-President Mahama was speaking at a donor roundtable meeting on the President's Special Initiatives and Rural Enterprises Development Programme in Accra.

The meeting was aimed to brief and solicit the support of the donor community for the various programmes being pursued by government.

The Vice-President said government was keen on implementing viable projects that were strategic to the development of the country in order to accelerate the growth of the economy and reduce poverty.

He said the Presidential Special Initiatives were to help diversify the economy, create employment and turn the rural communities into modern economic giants.

Vice-President Aliu Mahama asked the donors to assist government with the necessary funding for programme development and investment in equipment.

Mr Alan Kyerematen, Minister of Trade and Industry and President's Special Initiatives said the new programmes being pursued by the government was primarily predicated on those that were export-oriented and could easily help in the transformation of the economy.