The Ghana Consultative Group and Annual Partnership Meeting came off successfully at the Accra International Conference Centre during which Ghana and her donors discussed $5 billion in projected new disbursement and $1.3 billion in debt relief under the HIPC and MDRI initiatives in identified development partner support for the GPRS ll period.

They also reviewed and endorsed a Results Matrix to support the GPRS ll with augmented aim of accelerating economic growth to 8% and reducing poverty, based on private sector competitiveness, human resource development, and good governance and civic responsibility.

The meeting which attracted a large number of Ministers, Development partners, civil society groups and journalists was under the theme “Results and Resources; A partnership for shared accelerated growth”.

Welcoming delegates to the meeting, the Minister of Finance and Economic Planning Mr. Kwadwo Baah-Wiredu assured the nation and development partners that the country is fully committed to taking measures to reach the projected eight percent growth rate as well as sustaining measures that has led to significant economic turnaround for the country.

He noted that key economic indicators in recent times demonstrate the government’s efforts to create a congenial investment environment adding “that doing business in Ghana today, one is assured of a stable economy, stable political environment stable business conditions, a large consumer market comprising the ECOWAS sub-region, a literate workforce and an improving infrastructure”.

Mr. Baah-Wiredu commended Development Partners (DPs) for their support over the years which have helped the country achieve the current stable economy.

“This year’s meeting is a result of a lot of hard work and lengthy discussions between government and her development partners. I am proud to say that efforts to forge a strong partnership culture between government and DPs are well advanced”.

The Minister called on DPs to do more to achieve the stated objectives of the setting up the Multi-donor Budget Support such as a real reduction in the time and cost in conducting MDBS business.

In his welcoming address the co-chair for the 2006 CG, Mr. Mats Karlsson, and Country Director of the World Bank noted that the development partners are confident of the country’s economic progress.

“We feel confident that there is progress. Afterall maintaining a straight record of accelerated economic growth and strengthened macro stability in a world economy with tripling petroleum prices is no small thing”

He noted that though this progress is not rapid enough for most Ghanaians this growth will translate into major impact on poverty. He said one good sign of progress is the recently published World Bank ratings of countries that access IDA funding, Ghana now scores at the very top 3.9, together with Tanzania and Uganda.

“This good news is telling us how Ghana is doing relative to others, but not relative to itself. There is a huge potential for improvement. And this should now spur us on to make use of the strengths to accelerate”.

On the projected 8% GDP growth rate, he said DPs will support Ghana to achieve this, adding that accelerated growth is a joint commitment and urged the meeting to focus on accelerating this shared growth.

The Governor of the Bank of Ghana, Dr. Paul Acquah in his opening remarks reiterated that the economy has grown in resilience noting that the significant reductions in the stock of external debt and the domestic public debt over the last few years have improved the savings investment and growth dynamics. He added that there are signs of investor interest in taking risks in the domestic market.

“We are therefore making these changes to set the stage for the domestic capital market to play a central role in resource intermediation and the growth process”.

END.