Tamale, Feb. 26, GNA - The Northern Regional Minister, Alhaji Boniface Abubakar Saddique has proposed an investment forum for the development of the region. He has also directed district assemblies to create free zones and to come out with the investment potentials of their areas to attract investors.

The Regional Minister noted that the region had natural resources such gold and iron as well as arable land with the potential for cotton, rich, maize, yam cassava and groundnut productions, which had not been exploited due to inadequate marketing.

Alhaji Saddique said this at a press soiree organized by the Northern Regional Coordinating Council for media practitioners in Tamale on Friday to interact with them to learn of their problems for solution. He urged investors to take advantage of the tax-holiday the government had granted to invest in some of the natural resources in the region to find employment for the youth. He noted, however, that the potentials of the region could be exploited if there was no peace in the area and appealed traditional rulers and opinion leaders to bury their chieftaincy and political differences and to unite to bring peace, which was the prerequisite for development.