Ghana First Forum to be launched

Page: Centre Spread, April 11, 2008
Story: Emmanuel Adu-Gyamerah
GHANA First Forum, a socio-economic think tank, whose aims is ensuring the economic transformation of the country, will soon be launched.
According to Mr Raymond Ackah, a Senior Partner of Ishmael Yamson & Associates, the Forum would seek to facilitate development by engaging the government, academia, the private sector, and the media, among others, to come up with feasible development agenda in a non-political and non-partisan way.
Mr Ackah made this known when he led a two-member team to brief the Managing Director of the Graphic Communications Group Limited (GCGL), Mr Mohammed Ibrahim Awal, about preparations being made to launch the forum.
The other member of the delegation was the Chief Executive Officer of the Future Leaders Group, a non-governmental organisation (NGO), Mr Emmanuel Dei-Tumi.
The other members promoting the forum are Mr Ishmael Yamson, former Chairman of Unilever, Ghana, Pastor Mensa Otabil, Head Pastor of the International Central Gospel Church (ICGC), Professor Stephen Adei, Rector, GIMPA and Dr J.L.S. Abbey of the Centre for Policy Analysis (CEPA).
Mr Ackah said it had become an established fact that issues that had to be addressed to enable the country to achieve its set goals to ensure improvements in the lives of the people had been relegated to the background by the media.
He said it was unfortunate that politics, especially issues concerning the New Patriotic Party (NPP) and the National Democratic Congress (NDC), were given prominence to the detriment of social and economic matters.
Mr Ackah said promoters of the Forum had, therefore, identified 30 prominent Ghanaians from the various fields of endeavour, who would be put together as the think tank, to ensure that objectives set by the forum were achieved.
An initial promoters’ thoughts on the Forum observed that in spite of the desire of Ghanaians for the country to become a middle-income one within a decade to make their lives better just after independence, the economy faced management and performance problems for decades as a result of prolonged political instability, successive military interventions and a general crisis of governance.
“The focus now is for Ghana to become a middle-income country within a decade. This requires a long-term vision supported by a credible development agenda and the mobilisation of citizens to take advantage of opportunities and to confront the challenges of globalisation. That in turn would require pro-active contributions from all stakeholders,” he said.
Mr Ackah said since the Graphic Communications Group Limited had played an important role in the country’s development efforts, there was the need for a collaboration between the two institutions.
He commended the GCGL for coming out with a book containing some of the major events covered by the Daily Graphic since 1950 to commemorate the country’s 50th anniversary and described it as a masterpiece.
Mr Dei-Tumi noted that the missing link in the country’s development agenda was the lack of a blend of ideas between the media and the intellectual community and development partners.
Welcoming the team, Mr Awal said that currently the GCGL published seven papers, which were leaders in their various segments of the newspaper industry.
He said apart from informing, educating and entertaining the people, the company, as a state-owned media, focussed on bringing Ghanaians together to achieve the country’s aspiration.
Mr Awal said it was because of this that the company continued to sell a 72-page Daily Graphic at 50 Ghana pesewas, while others sold eight-page paper at the same price or more.
“We will therefore welcome initiatives such as yours aimed at pushing the country’s development agenda forward,” he said.
He mentioned the Governance Dialogue Programme, which was instituted by the company three years ago, as one of the initiatives by the company to support the socio-economic development of the country.
The Editor of the Daily Graphic, Mr Ransford Tetteh, welcomed the establishment of the Forum and expressed the hope that it would assist in influencing economic decisions by leaders of the country.
Present at the meeting were the General Manager, Marketing and Public Affairs, Mr Kwasi Owusu Asare and Mr Albert Sam, the Public Affairs Manager of the company.