New exports in Ghana are targeted

Ghana is the latest Commonwealth country to benefit from a project which assesses a country’s exports, in order to ensure competitiveness in the international market.

The project, funded by the Commonwealth Secretariat, will assess health, education and other professional services in order to ascertain from which sectors Ghana will be able to export effectively.

In the context of fluctuating commodity prices, developing countries like Ghana can benefit by moving away from a dependence on traditional exports such as cocoa, gold and timber and diversifying into the rapidly growing services sector.

For example, following an assessment of professional services in Malta, the country has now positioned itself as a global provider of English language training and has also expanded its health facilities to cater for international demand.

The Ghana Export Promotion Centre (GEPC), the organisation mandated to develop and promote the country’s exports, is co-ordinating this initiative. GEPC already facilitates access to markets for export companies and provides technical advice on export product development and trade information services.

Identifying competitive exports, analysing potential markets and producing an audit of the country’s services sector will be addressed by GEPC.

The project is expected to commence in late 2007 and follows a workshop held in Ghana in June 2007, which identified the need for a professional services strategy as key to the country’s long-term development goals.

Estella Aryada, a Trade Adviser at the Secretariat, said: “The main expected benefit from this programme will be to introduce Ghana’s professional service providers to the opportunities that the international market has to offer. This project will also demonstrate why partnerships among public and private entities are critical to competitiveness in today’s business environment.”

“By diversifying into professional services, Ghana will reduce its reliance on primary products and move into high value service-based exports. This will contribute to increasing incomes and skill among Ghana’s service providers, and consequently, reduce poverty,” she noted.

Through this project, it is expected that Ghana will see an increase in its exports of professional services, have greater awareness of export opportunities both in the region and abroad and develop a better business environment for the private sector.

The project is in line with the Secretariat’s goal to support pro-poor policies for economic growth and sustainable development and to improve export competitiveness.

Over the last three years, the Secretariat has provided assistance in these areas to more than ten Commonwealth Member states so far. These include Barbados, Cyprus, Dominica, Malaysia, Malta, Mauritius, Sri Lanka, St. Lucia and Trinidad and Tobago.

Key Links:

• Country Profile: Ghana

Related News:

• Ghana Export Promotion Centre (GEPC)