Poor Nations Yet To Benefit From Globalisation

In spite of the increasing benefits of globalisation, it has still not provided the 'milk and honey' that poor countries need to be fully integrated into world affairs, a government official has said.

Mr Samuel Owusu-Agyei, Minister of Public Sector Reforms, who said this in Accra yesterday to open a two-day international conference on globalisation said, ''the benefits of globalisation are apparent but it has not provided the milk and honey to all.'

'While there are visible benefits of globalisation in most parts of the world, the story is different in developing countries,' he told the conference participants mainly from the public sector.

The conference is being organised by the Ministry of Public Sector Reforms, Public Services Commission, Office of the Head of Civil Service and the Ghana Institute of Management and Public Administration (GIMPA) in collaboration with the French Embassy.

It is on the theme: 'Managing Globalisation in a competitive Environment: The state and Public Sector Perspectives'.

Mr Owusu-Agyei said while it is true that globalisation encourages free trade, there are also negative consequences because some countries try to save their national markets.

Touching on some of the ills of globalisation, he said, it has made it difficult for poorer countries to compete with stronger nations that subsidise their agricultural sector.

'Due to globalisation, companies from powerful industrialised nations are able to offer workers enough salary to entice them to endure extremely long hours', Mr Owusu-Agyei said.

The Minister asked participants to deliberate on the negative effects of globalisation Ghana is enduring and how it can manage globalisation adequately in order to reap more of the benefits.

Mr Sam N. Woode, Chairman of the Public Services Commission, said how a country responds to globalisation is significant because in a review of literature on the subject, one comes across several models.

He said every country stands the risk of not being a winner from globalisation if it proceeds on an assumption that there is a set of policies that can be presented on an every-size-fit-all.