Dr. Arthur Kobina Kennedy, New Patriotic Party (NPP) Presidential Hopeful for 2008, has said that his administration would seek to put people to work by simplifying processes of land acquisition and business formation.

These measures, according to Dr. Kennedy, will put emphasis on the development of rural infrastructure, the provision of agricultural support and the introduction of widespread data collection and credit in our economy to spur growth.

Dr. Kennedy, who is the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Family Health Centres Inc., Orangeburg SE in the United States of America, was addressing over 300 people at a dinner hosted by “Friends of Arthur Kennedy” on Saturday, June 24, 2006, in Toronto, Canada. The dinner was to enable the audience to listen and back him up for his ambition for the Presidency.

He said in support of these changes, there would be significant reform of Ghana’s import/export processes to simplify and speed up the movement of goods in and out of the country.

Dr. Kennedy said that growth in the agricultural and rural economies would drastically reduce urban migration which, according to Africa Commission, will grow from one-in-three Africans in urban areas to one-in-two in the next 20 years..

Dr. Kennedy told the audience, amid applause, that among the policies he would pursue, if elected NPP presidential candidate and subsequently the President of Ghana, are (1) making government work for the people, (2) putting people to work, (3) using appropriate technology to spur our development and (4) integrate diasporans into our development strategies.

Others are: (5) making the people healthy, (6) attacking corruption and incompetence, and (7) building our destiny.

Elaborating, Dr. Kennedy said his administration would make the government work for the people by reducing the number of ministries to not more than twenty, and shifting power to parliament and the regions.

“We will reform and strengthen institutions like the civil service, judiciary, the electoral commission and anti-corruption agencies like Serious Fraud Office and the Commission Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ).”

MORE

- 2 - On corruption and incompetence, the Presidential Hopeful said these are obstacles that must be removed to ensure the success of even the best policies.

He noted with regret that while the Africa Commission was encouraging the G-8 (Highly Developed Nations of the world) to increase aid to Africa to 50 billion dollars a year, the Africa Union reported that each year 148 billion dollars leaves Africa for foreign shores through corruption.

This is the reason why my administration will work relentlessly, with the help of the public, the western world and multi-national institutions, to implement all the provisions of the United Nations (UN) Convention against CORRUPTION.

The goal is to reduce significantly the frequency and the impact of corruption militating against business and the poor, Dr. Kennedy stressed.

On leadership, Dr. Kennedy pointed out that “it is a self-evident truth that the absence of good leadership has been a significant cause of Ghana’s under-development.”

On the integration of diasporans into the development strategies, Dr. Kennedy said his administration would put in place policies, programmes and processes to integrate Ghanaians abroad into all aspects of Ghana’s economy, coupled with aggressive measures to lure them back home to resettle and to play productive roles in all aspects of the nation’s development.

“We will seek to foster mechanisms for their investment in our economy in fruitful and transparent partnership with government and local private entrepreneurs. These Changes will complement an educational system tailored to the needs of the new century, with business involvement and available throughout the working life of a person,” he emphasized.

Dr. Kennedy said his contest for the nomination of the NPP would focus on ideas, not insults and principles, not personalities. He promised to focus on Ghana’s way forward and not reprise the old and tired battles of the past.

In conclusion, Dr. Kennedy told his audience “I am running for President, because I believe Ghana can and must do better.” The audience greeted this statement with standing ovation.