Infrastructure, a must to empower national dev't (final)
• Continued from Thursday, 25 March 2010
A National Health Insurance Scheme has been instituted in Ghana in place of a “Cash and Carry” system. Parliament has since the end of the year 2003 passed this scheme into law. The scheme has been launched nation-wide and funding has been provided for it at all the 110 administrative Districts of the country. The introduction of the scheme followed about two years of piloting in 45 districts.
Tourism
Ghana's tourism sector enjoys numerous strengths including the friendliness and helpfulness of its people. The Ghanaian Hospitality is legendary. Ghana is a peaceful and loving country, where all visitors are warmly received. Ghanaians are often referred to as Africa's Friendliest People because they are a fun-loving and cheerful people, who are proud of their country and traditions. It is a free society where much emphasis is placed on courtesy and politeness. A handshake is key to everything.
The Government has formulated a policy to develop Ghana into an internationally competitive tourist destination. To this end, a series of activities has been undertaken by the Ministry of Tourism and Modernization of the Capital City to improve upon the operations of the hospitality industry in the country. In 1996, a 15-year Master Plan for tourism development was initiated to guide the private sector and government agencies to identify and develop opportunities in the sector.
There has been a phenomena increase in tourist arrivals in the country over the last ten years. Between 1992 and 2002, tourist arrivals in Ghana increased form 213,316 to 482,643 with a corresponding increase in receipts from US$166 million to US$519.57 million. With this, tourism has proven its case as a serious income generating economic sector, whose time for conversion from a want into a need has come.
Determined to build on these successes, tourism is targeted to attract one million tourists who will generate US$1.5 billion by the year 2007. An estimated 300,000 would also be employed by the sector, making it the biggest employer after agriculture and the retail sector.
Conclusion
Another reason for regional infrastructure development is its ability to promote national unity among the various ethnic groups in the country. The Rwanda genocide was fueled by propaganda by one ethnic group against the other because; one of the groups felt was being cheated from the country's natural resources. Another example is the Niger-delta in Nigeria which claims it is being marginalized in the country resources.
When infrastructure is being built in most regions of the country, it is expected that it will encourage peaceful co-existence and healthy rivalry among regions and ethnic tribe in the country as is the case in most western nations where little is heard about ethnic clashes though, there have been few cases of racial in-difference.
It is also another way of ensuring productive education reaches all corners of a country, since education is another key to national development; quality education at the regions is the first step towards that goal.
Though a very expensive venture in these times when the world is reeling from economic depression yet for the sake of the right reasons more private investment should be sought to make it a reality. Efforts should be directed towards increasing private sector involvement due to speedy release of funds and less governmental bottle necks. This will also increase private participation in a country infrastructure development and can lead to investors boost within a country and outside as evenly spread development generates both local and foreign investors across the country and outside the country.
However, there is need to strengthen public-private partnership infrastructure development, this will ensure collective developmental responsibility by both parties and reduce pressure from one sector since, regional infrastructure development is also in line with the African Union (AU) goal and vision for regional and intra-country development which the AU believes can impact on the whole continent when it comes to linking various regions of the continent. New infrastructure will not be needed only expansion on the existing ones in various nations that will be used to facilitate travels, commerce etc via roads, rail, sea etc on the continent.
Achieving an accelerated growth, with employment creation and poverty reduction, will require massive investment in priority sectors of the economy. The country has come far with the help of its development partners and fiscal prudence on the part of government in the achievement of some remarkable progress which makes the future bright.
There is the need to maintain the momentum of growth and the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals. To do these concerted efforts must be made towards investing in some key areas of the economy. This will require scaling up of resources on the part of government and its development Partners to make it feasible.