Long periods of economic policy failures of successive governments are the bane of Ghana’s economic development says Prof. Ernest Aryeetey, Director of the Institute of Statistical, Social and Economic Research (ISSER), University of Ghana, Legon.

Industrialisation on the back of modern agriculture is the strategy that should have been adopted to achieve structural transformation and development of the country, he suggested.

Prof. Aryeetey was speaking at a public lecture at the 58th New Year School at Legon in Accra on Wednesday. His topic was "The state of the national economy, 50 years after independence: what next?"

He traced the economic policies of Kwame Nkrumah, J.J. Rawlings and Kutu Achemapong and said although all of them did a lot it was not enough.

He said both Nkrumah and Rawlings were decisive in their pursuit of economic growth that captured the policy making institutions, but pressure groups were not effective enough to enable them to make the desired impact. Under the Acheampong regime, the pressure groups became active only between 1977 and 1979, he noted.

He pointed out that economic growth in the post-1992 era has been more open but not focused and said corruption has been associated with all governments, particularly the military regimes.

He blamed civil society for being passive towards leaders and their policies, saying they did not put enough pressure for institutional development and structural change.

He said whether an economy would do well, or not would depend on the kind of economic policies pursued by the government.

"What most often throws government policies overboard is when they begin to spend huge sums of money they do not have, by borrowing from the central bank, and pursuing goals that are untenable."

Ghana’s biggest problem, Prof. Aryeetey said, is the inability of successive governments to change economic policies that are not working for the people.

He wondered why governments, for example, would continue to invest in road construction when that was not the people’s priority.

Prof. Aryeetey called for a state and private sector cooperation to move the nation forward adding that, despite the economic growth recorded in the recent past, unemployment continued to increase and said this is because the growth came largely from public investments funded by aid.

"Public investment has failed to bring in private investment in a substantial way," he added.

Answering a question as to why he did not make his economic ideas available to previous and the current governments for implementation Prof. Aryeetey said economists have always given governments sound advice put the decision to implement rests squarely with the government.

Tony Oteng Gyasi, Chairman of the University of Ghana, Council, who chaired the function, expressed concern about the late arrival of participants for the lecture. He stressed that lateness to public function is part of the problems which Ghana must solve.GRi…/