VEEP PLEDGES SUPPORT FOR LOCAL INDUSTRIES (PAGE 13)

The Vice President, Mr John Dramani Mahama, has reiterated the policy of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) government to provide the necessary support to private companies which add value to the country’s natural resources.
He said since such enterprises provided employment to the youth, especially the rural dwellers, the government would take a critical look at the problems confronting them and assist in finding solutions to their challenges.
Mr Mahama gave the assurance when he inaugurated a quarry at Papaso, near Wenchi in the Brong Ahafo Region at the weekend.
The project, which is known as the J.A. Quarry, is owned by the Zoomlion Company Limited, a private waste management enterprise. Its objective is to support the construction industry with quality products and excellent service.
It has a production capacity of 400,000 metric tonnes of quarry products per year.
Established in 2007 and believed to be the biggest in the country, the project currently employs about 100 workers, with various skills, and the figure is expected to increase as production goes on.
The Vice President noted that a major problem facing the country now was the rural-urban migration by the youth, and that the government would, therefore, encourage both local and foreign investors who would decide to establish companies in the rural areas with incentives such as tax rebates to provide jobs for the people.
He observed that apart from the negative effects of the rural-urban drift on agriculture in particular, the cities and other urban areas were becoming choked with people who were mostly unemployed or under-employed.
Mr Mahama said quarrying was a capital intensive venture and that the survival of the company would depend on efficient management, the effective maintenance culture and the adoption of the best practices in order to stay in business for a long time.
He expressed the hope that with the opening of the quarry in that part of the country, the availability of chipping would no longer be a problem for road contractors.
“I urge road contractors to effectively use the products to do a good job and building contractors, especially those doing state projects to also utilise the chipping’s from quarries in order to ensure quality work for the nation,”, Mr Mahama appealed.
The Minister of Lands and Natural Resources, Alhaji Collins Dauda, said it was the vision and mission of the ministry to ensure the sustainable management and utilisation of the country’s natural resources for accelerated national socio-economic growth and development.
That, he said, could be achieved through effective formulation, implementation, co-ordination, monitoring and evaluation of policies and programmes of the sector.
Alhaji Dauda, who is also the Member of Parliament (MP) for Asutifi South, stressed that the ministry had a duty to create an enabling environment for effective private sector participation in the management and utilisation of the country’s natural resources.
He said the quarry industry was of vital importance to the socio-economic development of the country in the areas of construction of houses, roads, railways, waterways, dams and many other physical structures.
The minister, however said, he was mindful of the legitimate concerns of the surrounding communities, especially the potential impact usually associated with quarry operations, such as blast vibrations, noise, flying rocks and dust, which if not properly managed, could result in cracks in buildings.
Nonetheless, Alhaji Dauda said those potential impacts could be mitigated through the effective enforcement of the health and safety provisions in the mining, explosive and environmental regulations as well as the observance of proper mining practices.
He urged the management of the company to live up to its social responsibilities by being responsive to the needs of the host community and must also be transparent in their engagement with all the stakeholders to promote social harmony with its host communities.
The Brong Ahafo Regional Minister, Mr Kwadwo Nyamekye-Marfo, said the region was blessed with a lot of natural resources, such as gold, timber, quarrying materials and large tracts of fertile farm land but pointed out that, those resources could not be harnessed effectively without investors, both local and foreign.