Time for a long-term strategic national plan

Captain Budu Koomson (Rtd), Chief Operating Officer of UT Holdings, has underscored the need for the country to develop a long-term strategic national plan that will guide the national developmental process.
 

The plan, he said, must be adopted and mainstreamed by all subsequent sectoral strategies and implemented by successive Governments.

“This strategic plan must form a blueprint of sound economic policies and national projects that can be implemented to ensure sustainable growth and development of the economy, and should list programmes and projects that will be undertaken during the plan period.”

He was speaking to B&FT on the upcoming second edition of the Ghana Economic Forum (GEF), an event that brings together decision-makers and business leaders to deliberate on key issues affecting the country’s economic fortunes.

This year’s edition, scheduled to take place tomorrow, will be under the theme “The Role of Leadership in Driving National Economic Prosperity”. It will address current leadership challenges and the role of leadership in driving the economic prosperity of the country.

Captain Koomson said: “We need a strategic national plan that anchors the economy on a broad-based sustainable growth path through employment-creation and poverty-reduction.”

The country currently has a medium-term plan, the Ghana Shared Growth and Development Agenda (GSGDA), which started from 2010- 2013 and is aimed to ensure and sustain macro-economic stability; enhance private-sector competitiveness; modernise agriculture; develop infrastructure; and ensure transparent and accountable governance.

The GSGDA is the successor to the Growth and Poverty Reduction Strategy (GPRS II), which covered the period 2006-2009 and was linked to Ghana’s debt-forgiveness programme with external creditors.

According to Captain Koomson, a national strategic plan should cut across political-party governments, and be seen as the nation’s strategy for social and economic development.

A long-term plan should respond to the mandate set out to support restoration of the citizenry in galvanising economic stability and growth in the country, he said.

Captain Koomson proposed that “there should be various sectoral strategies that draw from the long-term strategic plan to guide future governments and leaders”.

He observed that the country’s inability to attain economic freedom is largely because it lacks bold, powerful and charismatic leaders who will inspire the citizenry to aspire to attain their full potential.

“If the country had a continuous supply of visionary, charismatic and powerful leaders who had been able to galvanise us to go in one direction, Ghana would have achieved its full potential.

“At the moment Ghana is producing at about 50 percent of its capacity, the reason being that the nation is split in the middle.”

He added: “I think we have a crisis of leadership in Ghana; we’ve lost confidence in ourselves; we’ve lost confidence in the crop of leaders we have; we are so pluralised and none of us have been able to transcend this to give us that hope.

“When you are able to galvanise people in that way, you set free the productive, imaginative and emotional power that brings about synergy.”

On the global perspective, he said Ghana is being hailed in the global market place because the country is being compared with only West African countries, which are underdeveloped.

“We must rather compare ourselves with countries like Malaysia, Korea and others.”

Speaking on the issue of the Ghana Economic Forum, he said the forum will force Government to listen to the public.

“I expect that these business leaders are not going to be partisan, but will be professional and offer ideas that will be good for the development of this country.”