Forum On ‘Doing Business’ Report

A DAY'S stakeholders consultative forum on the World Bank's "Doing Business Report", a project bench-marketing the regulatory cost of doing business in 178 economies in the world has taken place in Accra.

The forum which was organised by the Judicial Service was on the theme: "Improving doing business in Ghana".

It was attended by officials of the Judicial Service and the business community to discuss the judiciary's role of promoting investment in the country.

Opening the forum, the Chief Justice, Mrs Georgina Wood, said the country needed a more efficient and reliable Judiciary to enjoy the full benefits of the oil find.

"Any negativity emanating from the judiciary could destroy investors' confidence and impede foreign direct investment," she said.

The Chief Justice said the Judiciary can be used as a catalyst for increased business and investment activities in the country.

"Our role in this regard is the enforcement of contracts and the protection of investors," This is a crucial role for creating a secure and enabling environment for doing business in the country, she said.

To increase foreign investment, she said investors must have faith in the Judicial system's capability to resolve disputes pertaining to these matters quickly, efficiently and fairly.

The "Doing Business" in Ghana, survey suggests that there is still more to be done to improve the country's ranking in the subsequent World Bank surveys on "Doing Business".

As regards the equally crucial issues of enforcing contracts and protecting investment Ghana ranked 51st and 33rd respectively in the 2008 annual rankings.

The Chief Justice said over the last seven years, the government has introduced and implemented major national policy initiatives and sectoral programme interventions to improve the climate for doing business in the country.

These include the National Medium-term Private Sector Development Strategy (PSDS), the Land Administration Programme, the Financial Sector Strategic Plan and the Public Sector Reform Pragramme.

The Chief Justice said under the PSDS programme for Legal Sector Reform which focuses on Access to Commercial Justice, the responsibility of the Judicial Service is to provide the necessary legal environment for business to thrive.

Mrs Wood mentioned pretrial conferencing, human resource development at judges and staff of the Judicial Service as some of the reforms being implemented to address the varying needs of the 21st century business community in justice delivery.

She said as part of measures to ensure that the country positions itself in readiness for the expected commercial disputes likely to flow from business relationships pertaining to the oil find, two eminent judges will be leaving the country to pursue post-graduate courses in Petroleum Law and Policy in Dundee University, Scotland in September.

Mrs Wood said the judges will come back well equipped to serve the facility members and resource persons of the Law Training Institute, so that "our commercial court judges in particular, will be adequately prepared to handle oil and gas related disputes".

Justice Gertrude Torkornu, a high court judge, commercial division, who, spoke on the "Role of the Judiciary in protecting investors and contract enforcement in Ghana", said the judiciary has been strengthened for delivering effective justice to investors.

More than 200 Acts of Parliament have been passed since the year 2000 to support commercial justice delivery.

Investor protection has been prioritised in the work of the Commercial Court by the separation of its jurisdiction from the general jurisdiction of the High Court under Order 58 of C.1.47, saying the scope of this jurisdiction is limited to commercial matters and claims, Justice Torkornu said.