Nkawie (Ash), Dec 12, GNA - A seven-day clients' exhibition and trade show for 2007 has opened at Nkawie in the Atwima-Nwabiagya District.

The fair, which is being jointly organised by the rural Enterprises Project (REP) and the Atwima-Nwabiagya District Assembly, has 53 participating.

It has a theme "Ghana@50: Promotion of Rural Enterprises as a Tool for Poverty Reduction and National Development". In an address read on his behalf Mr Joe Baidoe-Ansah, Minister of Trade and Industry, Private Sector Development and President's Special Initiatives (PSI), said his ministry recognized the importance the Rural Enterprises Project and its role in the furtherance of the goals of the growth and poverty reduction strategy of the government. He said the REP sought to promote a competitive rural micro and small enterprise sector that is supported by relevant, good quality, easily accessible and sustainable business support services at the community and district levels.

Mr Baidoe-Ansah said the government, through his ministry, was committed to addressing key development issues that adversely affected private sector development, in particular the establishment, survival and growth of micro and small-scale enterprises. He said the ministry would ensure provision of a business environment where firms could capitalize on the country's competitive advantage and the private sector was well equipped to compete in local, regional and global markets.

This, he said, would promote better functioning micro and small-scale enterprises and the poor would be more economically active. Mr Baidoe-Ansah said the country had therefore adopted a trade policy based on the paradigm that the private sector is the engine of growth with the government providing a trade-enabling environment to actively stimulate private sector initiatives. Mr Kwasi Attah-Antwi, Project Co-ordinator of the REP, said the clients' exhibition and trade show remained one of the key mechanisms to reducing poverty and improving living conditions in the rural areas could be realized.

He said the Project had since 1995 enrolled 66 districts in all 10 Regions of the country and there are 53 districts receiving direct support from the Project.

The other 13 that participated in the first phase of the Project have been weaned off direct project support. Mr Thomas Ofori-Donkor, the Atwima-Nwabiagya District Chief Executive, said since the district was offered admission into the REP, it had benefited from vehicles, motor-bikes, office appliances, technical and financial support. He said over 300 people had been trained and given technical support in soap, pomade and powder making, batik, tye and dye, hair dressing, snail rearing and carpentry. Mr Ofori-Donkor said the District Assembly had built a trade centre that would be equipped to serve clients in various fields.