A presidential aspirant of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Mr Kwabena Agyei Agyepong, has promised to provide exemplary leadership that will make “business as usual a thing of the past”.
“Once in every generation, the thinking and behaviour should change significantly, not only quantitatively, but qualitatively. What we need as a nation now to achieve the Millennium Development Goals and the middle income status of the nation by 2015, is a great leap into the future not small steps”, he said.
Mr Agyepong, a former Press Secretary to President J A Kufuor was briefing the Daily Graphic after his second nation-wide tour of the 230 constituencies of the NPP to explain why it was high time the delegates to the December 22 congress voted for a young, dynamic and visionary candidate to lead the party to victory.
He explained that President Kufuor had put the nation on a sound footing that required a leader who would initiate deliberate and proactive measures that would put the “nation on a war footing to drive our developmental agenda forward to catch up with the developed world. It is time for us to inject more vitality, passion and pace into the administration of this beloved nation of ours by working hard, 24 hours a day and seven days a week”.
He said he would place much emphasis on agriculture, especially agro processing and would put the commanding height of the economy in the hands of Ghanaians, establishment of industries among others, all through hard work.
The Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) trained engineer, explained that he would pursue a more progressive agriculture policy that would graduate the country from using the back-breaking hoe and cutlass farming that only produced for the local market to an exporter of added value agricultural products.
He explained that the strategy, apart from giving enough food to the populace and decent rewards for the hardworking farmers, would provide jobs for the teeming youth as well as foreign exchange for the country adding that “the nation has been blessed with adequate fertile land for food production and that his government would make agriculture serve as the basis for economic growth”.
He said his government would establish marketing companies similar to the Cocoa Marketing Board to purchase from the farmers and also dialogue with players in the business sector, like the Ghana Chamber of Commerce, the Association of Ghana Industries (AGI), the Ghana Union Traders Association (GUTA), in an effective and proactive manner to enter add value to the nation’s produce for export.
Mr Agyepong said when such entities were provided with guaranteed and low interest financial assistance, such as the Venture Capital Fund in a form of long-term capital, they would be able to enter into agro-processing as well as other industrial activities.
“There were many in the business sector who had capital which they use to import goods from various countries, if given the nod as president, I will dialogue with and re-orient them to redirect some of their capital into agro-processing businesses to generate wealth and employment and help to improve on the living conditions of the people” he added.
He explained that the successful nations that the country wanted to emulate never made it through buying and selling, therefore, his administration would also ensure that the myriad of bottlenecks, including the severe conditionalities for accessing facilities and unfair competition from outside would not impede the effectiveness of policies that would support the local industries to be competitive on the international market.
Mr Agyepong expressed worry about the bureaucracies and red-tapeism which he said was affecting the smooth transaction of businesses by civil and public officials and stressed that he would not waiver to bring the full force of the law on any such officials.
Sounding very optimistic, he said the campaign had been very successful with the grassroots members of the party yearning for a candidate whom they are conversant with, could deliver the seat for the party and move the nation on the path of a accelerated development.
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