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16.04.2010 Politics

Cabinet Bussed For Retreat

16.04.2010 LISTEN
By Daily Graphic

A two-day Cabinet retreat designed to take stock of the government’s ‘Better Ghana’ agenda has opened in Accra.

The retreat, presided over by President John Evans Atta Mills and attended by Vice-President John Dramani Mahama, will also discuss the government’s programme of job creation and provision of infrastructure.

President Mills and his vice joined Cabinet ministers on a bus to the Kofi Annan International Peacekeeping Training Centre, the venue for the retreat.


At a media briefing just before the beginning of the retreat, the Director of Communications at the Presidency, Mr Koku Anyidoho, said the issue of job creation was uppermost in the scheme of activities of the government and that explained why it would feature prominently in the discussions.

According to him, the issue of offering job opportunities formed a major plank of the government’s electoral promises, noting that the availability of jobs would enable people to lead dignified and meaningful lives, as well as contribute positively by way of honouring their tax obligations, to national reconstruction.

Mr Anyidoho explained that the ability of the government to create more jobs for the people would go a long way to sustain the goodwill and confidence the people had in the National Democratic Congress (NDC).

He further explained that during the period, President Mills and his Cabinet would draw a balance sheet of the job profile in the country and determine what had been achieved by the government during the past 15 months in office and what needed to be done in the future.


He said, it was highly likely that the meeting would touch on the various indices in the economy, including the rate of inflation, the performance of industry, as well as manufacturing and agricultural development.

He said Cabinet was expected to take a dispassionate look at the recent announcement by the Meteorological Services Department that the country would experience an erratic rainfall pattern which would impact negatively on crop production this year.

Mr Anyidoho said the meeting would also look at the state of infrastructure development, especially in the road, health, agricultural, educational and rail sectors and attempt to determine more appropriate ways of bringing about rapid results in those sectors.

He said the rehabilitation of and improvement in the country’s infrastructure had become critical, following the discovery of oil and gas in commercial quantities, since the investor community would require an appreciable improvement in the country’s rail lines, roads and harbours to facilitate their operations.

Mr Anyidoho said Cabinet would also examine the internal situation of the country to ascertain what could be done in the long run to sustain the peace and stability that Ghana had enjoyed over the past two decades.

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