The incentives include duty free status for importing machinery and equipment, duty free for importing all raw materials for the Company, a Five-year tax holiday to be extended on application, which could be extended after the period.

Mr Kyeremanten was speaking at the opening of a three-day Association of Ghana Industries’ (AGI) Ghana Industrial Summit and Exhibition in Accra. This year’s event is on the theme: “International Partnerships for Value-Added Industrial and Local Content Development”.

He said there were so many incentives government was providing to support Companies interested in the initiative. He encouraged those, who had already applied for the initiative that government would provide both equity and also incentives to enable them sustain their business and improving on the Ghanaian economy.

He said the private sector needed to make their contributions in the equation towards the implementation of the initiative.  The Minister said government believed that in moving to “Ghana beyond Aid”, “our attention should be focused on the private sector investment both local and international”.

He said when President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo talked about Ghana beyond aid, there was a strong signal being sent to the private sector that they need to come on board to drive its implementation, adding that it must open a new chapter of relationship between government and the private sector.

He said so far, the 1D1F secretariat had received 700 proposal from the private sector both local and international Companies.  Mr Kyeremanten said government was ready to partner the private sector in the implementation of the initiative in all districts. “We are also championing the development of industrial parks at least in all regions of the country,” he added.

The Trade Minister said government was looking for Companies, who have the intention and the interest in developing these industrial parks. He said another pillar of the transformation agenda was the identification of a number of strategic industries that would propel the country to the next level of the development process.

These industries are petrol chemical industry, iron and steel industry, integrated Bauxite and aluminium industry. Dr Yaw Gyamfi, the President of AGI lauded government’s effort at making industrialisation, a key focus in its development agenda.He said as an Association, they support any efforts aimed at bringing transparency to the importation of goods into the country as long as it does not bring additional cost burden to the businesses.

Dr Gyamfi said, “If the introduction of the CTN will address this menace, so be it and AGI fully supports it”. The AGI President said the concerns raised by the freight forwarders with regards to the additional cost burden and other proposals should be looked into but government should not backtrack on this efforts.

He said the AGI believed that the best approach in achieving the Ghana Beyond Aid agenda was to promote the productive sector to expand and create the needed jobs and help generate the kind of tax revenue needed to enable the country operate without aid.Topics to be discussed include how to take advantage of international demand for high-end products to grow our industrial sectors, value-addition prospects and available capacity in existing industries, utilizing latest industrial technologies in production processes, and harnessing the potential of renewable energy as a cheaper source of power for industrial growth.

The rest are “Availability of power to feed the value-added industrialization drive”, “Technology exchange programmes with international partners.