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Report By Bernard K DADZIE
The Deputy Minister of Trade and Industry Mr. Herbert Krapa, has said that Governments will continue to intensify their best efforts at enhancing our merchandise trade competitiveness. And also to invest in trade-related infrastructure, including ICT for digital trade.
According to him, there are constant efforts being advanced by the ministry toward positioning the country to benefit from the AfCFTA, and the government is keen on supporting viable projects.
He observed that Africa’s demographics tell us that innovation and dynamism in the services sector is a guarantee for increased overall trade. He said that enhancing our share of the global value chain must at all times be our guiding goal.
He therefore welcomed the launch of a report titled “Ghana Trade Competitiveness Diagnostic Strengthening Ghana’s Trade Competitiveness in the Context of AfCFTA”.
The Deputy Minister of Trade and Industry Mr. Herbert Krapa, was speaking at the World Bank Book and Report launch for “Ghana Trade Competitiveness Diagnostic Strengthening Ghana’s Trade Competitiveness in the Context of AfCFTA”. The launch was held at the Kempinski Hotel in Accra.
He was optimistic that Trade Policy, trade related infrastructure, trade facilitation, productive capacity, trade, finance and free movement of persons remain at the heart of government’s industrial transformation agenda.
“This book contributes immensely to our best efforts so far. The book puts policy prescriptions for strengthening Ghana’s competitiveness at the heart of the African continental free trade area, and rightly so,” he said.
The AfCFTA offers member states the biggest stimulus to move away from raw material exports to value addition to industrialize and build regional and continental value chains. The evidence shows that this is the surest way of improving the standard of living of our people and lifting millions of them out of extreme poverty,’ he added.
The Deputy Minister for Trade and Industry was of the view that the time is here for African governments and policymakers to shape a recovery that is participatory, and shifts from raw material dependency towards the right side of the value chain. And Africa has what it takes.
Mr. Pierre Laporte, World Bank, County Director for Ghana, Liberia and Sierra Leone emphasized that it is the launch of a Ghana trade competitiveness diagnostic report. He said that the World Bank Group is happy to produce this report at a time that government is seeking to achieve economic transformation and increase opportunities for job creation and poverty reduction, trade expansion and integration into the global economy.
To him, approaches such as trade expansion and integration into the global economy have historically been central to creating new higher productivity jobs that facilitate growth through structural transformation. The report examines two different but complementary pathways that can be leveraged to achieve economic transformation.
These are namely manufacturing,leading to exports and services leading exports, which is the case of East Asia. He said that this has often been cited as an example of how manufacturing leading to exports contributed to economic transformation and growth in that region.
Historically, he said Ghana has had difficulties in modeling after the stage. The example not just Ghana but Africa generally. But the emerging importance of value chains, local value chains, regional and global value chains, as well as the establishment of the Africa Continental Free Trade Agreement, provide an opportunity for policymakers to better strategize the country’s industrial policy from the perspective of trade policy.
The World Bank’s recent report has also shown that services and trade, especially in the context of strong digital infrastructure is increasingly creating opportunities for economies of scale, innovation and increased productivity.
According to research findings, the digital economy is expanding access to markets and opportunities for innovation in the services sector. Service is also becoming increasingly important as enablers for a wide range of sectors as is best illustrated by the blurring lines between services and manufacturing.
Thus, to the Country Director, the choice policy for policymakers is no longer whether to support services of manufacturing, but how to best to leverage the potential of the services sector to deliver productivity, growth, export growth and job creation.
He explained that the report entitled ‘Strengthening Ghana’s Trade Competitiveness in the Context of Africa Continental Free Trade Agreement’ focuses on how Ghana can leverage trade policies to achieve export diversification and economic transformation.
The research examines in detail, Ghana’s export performance in goods and services over the period 2010 to 2019. It focuses not only on growth and composition, but other performance dimensions including diversification, sophistication, and firm dynamics.
The Country Director alluded that Ghana’s merchandise trade competitiveness, especially even in non extractive sector has declined over the last decade, resulting in the decline in a number of exporting firms and the level of participation in global value chains. Nonetheless there have been improvements in transport logistics and access to ICT infrastructure, which can be leveraged for a more diversified trade and economic transformation.
He added that the impressive performance in services exports, especially innovative and dynamic segments of the sector, underscores the potential for leveraging the services sector for economic transformation in Ghana.
Mr. Pierre Laporte revealed that Ghana needs to strengthen its trade competitiveness through elimination of non tariff barriers, implementation of trade facilitation reforms, enhance regulatory framework for trade and services, an improvement in investment and business climate. He said that regional Integration, digital innovation and trade policy will be key to drive Ghana’s economic transformation agenda.
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