Accra, March 01, GNA - Mr Joseph Henry Mensah, Chairman of the National Development Planning Commission (NDPC) on Wednesday reiterated the need for communities to initiate their own developmental agenda. He said it was high time communities break the dependency syndrome and take initiatives to fulfil their dreams by avoiding the total reliance on government for the provision of social amenities and developmental projects.

"It is high time communities start thinking of what they can do for themselves instead of waiting on government to come and provide," he told the audience at the launching of Volta Messenger, a quarterly magazine of Volta Foundation, a pressure group in Accra. The magazine aims to provide a platform by drawing attention to the rich tourism, agriculture, industries and other opportunities endowed in the region.

It would in addition, provide an avenue to attract attention of investors, industrialists, tourists both local and foreign to invest in the region to spur economic activities.

Mr Mensah said the time had come to build a new Ghana of quality through a rethink of the old way of doing things. He said in developing resources to attract people to invest, due attention should be paid to quality, saying the whole world now insists on quality.

Mr Mensah was optimistic that the magazine would become an instrument through which the future generation could contribute their quota to the development of the country. Mr Raymond Okudzeto, President of Volta Foundation, said the Foundation was mapping out strategies to speed up the development of the region.

In this direction, a 32 billion-cedi fund would soon be launched to support small and medium scale enterprises in the region to create jobs and improve on the living standards of the people. Mr Okudzeto stressed the determination of members of the Foundation to contribute their quota to the region's development. He appealed for all and sundry, to get on board to move the region forward. 01 March 07