It said the private sector holds the key to creating wealth and jobs for Ghanaians and would, therefore, create friendly economic environment for them to achieve that objective.Vice President Dr Mahamudu Bawumia gave the assurance at the maiden Policy Summit, organised by the Ministry of Information, in Accra.

The two-day summit was held on the theme: “Building Partnerships for Growth and Jobs”.

 It provided a platform for stakeholders in the public and private sectors to dialogue on key government policies and programmes and solicit feedback from them to ensure effective implementation.

Dr Bawumia said it was Government’s priority to create jobs and wealth as outlined in this year’s budget statement by growing the economy from dwindling 3.6 per cent to 6.5 per cent this year.In order to achieve the objectives, he said, there was the need to be transformational in the implementation of policies and programmes by maintaining and sustaining macro-economic stability.

According to him, agriculture would feature prominently in Government’s quest to industrialise the economy and would invest huge resources into the sector including irrigation infrastructure and other farming inputs to ensure food security and export surplus food produce to increase the country’s foreign exchange earnings.

‘‘Agriculture is the most important sector in terms of job creation therefore we need a marshal plan in agriculture to create surplus for industrialisation, ’’he stated.The Vice President said it would need both domestic and foreign partners to achieve Government’s vision of building an economy that was beyond aid and pledged to treat all partners with mutual respect.

He said the ruling New Patriotic Party considered the promises it made to Ghanaians as sacred contract and would work to make the Ghanaian dream a reality.According to the Vice President, there were three key elements that would help in the formalisation of the economy and mentioned the issuance of the national identification system, which would commerce hopefully by August or September this year as one of them.

The other two elements were the issuance of unique digital addressing system, which would be rolled-out in July and financial inclusion where all telecommunication companies would be linked in terms of transfer of money or payment system, otherwise known as interoperability.

The event brought together captains of industries, government officials, diplomatic corps and Members of Parliament, as well as civil society organisations and the media.