Being organised by the Ministry of Information, the summit follows its maiden edition on the economy, organised earlier this year.

Mustapha Abdul Hamid, Minister of Information, launching the event on Wednesday, said the event was in line with government’s plan to constantly engage the citizenry to solicit inputs into the process of decision making and governance.

The event, he explained forms part of government’s three tier interaction the citizenry to ensure a bottom-up development approach.

The platforms allow stakeholders of the various sectors to criticise, examine and offer suggestions on government’s programmes and policies to ensure their effective and efficient implementation, Mr Hamid stated.

“This platform is important in the government’s agenda of transformation as it offers the opportunity for expert, statesmen, public sector officials and all other stakeholders to contribute to the ideas and plans being implemented to effect transformation in the country. We acknowledge that wisdom is not exclusive to an individual,” he added.

Mr. Alan Kyeremanten, Minister of Trade and Industry, for his part, said government’s plan for industrial transformation would be focused on 10 pillars including revitalising local industries through the provision of stimulus packages and the one-district one-factory initiative to address the problem of severe poverty in the rural and peri-urban communities and create jobs.

Strategic anchor initiatives such as developing the petrochemical and aluminium industries to ease the over dependence on the two export commodities; gold and cocoa, and widenthe backbone of the economy to include other products, he stated.

The Minister said the government intends to create industrial parks in the regions to increase collaboration among the various industries and enhance industrial infrastructure.

The government, he noted, would promote industrial sub contracting exchange to transform small scale entities to fit into the requirements of larger companies and support Small and Medium Scale (SMEs) to expand to improve job creation.

Mr. Kyeremanten said the government remained focused on creating an enabling environment through the appropriate regulations and create a public- private sector dialogue mechanism.

By Claude Nyarko Adams