Welcome Message From The Minister of Trade and Industry

The Ministry is aggressively pursuing the One District One Factory Initiative through Public-Private Partnerships to establish at least one medium-scale to large-scale industrial unit in each of the 216 districts. The Programme, also referred to as the District Industrialization Programme (DIP), will address the challenge of severe poverty and underdevelopment among peri-urban and rural communities, through the establishment of an institutional framework that will attract private sector investments in rural development activities. It also seeks to promote local participation in economic development and encourage new community-based public/private partnerships.

• To create massive employment particularly for the youth in rural and peri-urban communities and thereby improve income levels and standard of living as well as reduce rural-urban migration.
• To add value to the natural resources of each district and exploit the economic potential of each district based on its comparative advantage.
• To ensure even and spatial spread of industries and thereby stimulate economic activity in different parts of the country.
• To enhance the production of local substitutes for imported goods and thereby conserve scarce foreign exchange.
• To promote exports and increase foreign exchange earnings.

The Ministry as part of its comprehensive plan to develop new growth poles for economic transformation has identified a number of Strategic Anchor Initiatives as new pillars of growth for the Ghanaian economy. These include the Petrochemical industry, Iron and Steel, Integrated Aluminium industry, Pharmaceutical, Vehicle Assembly and Automotive industry, Industrial Salt, Garment and Textiles, Manufacture of Machinery, Equipment and Component Parts.

The Ministry is currently facilitating the establishment of Multi-Purpose Industrial Parks in each of the ten regions. One component of the industrial development agenda is to improve access to land and utility services while spreading economic activities across the country. It is the vision of the ministry that, this initiative will significantly improve Ghana's ranking in the World Bank's Ease of Doing Business index since it targets one of the major constraints investors and entrepreneurs face when starting a business.

A key component of the ministry's roadmap for industrial transformation is the implementation of a Comprehensive Programme of Action for Small and Medium scale business development. In order to execute the programme effectively, the Ministry is currently restructuring the operations of the National Board for Small Scale Industries (NBSSI) and the Ghana Enterprises Agency (GEA) and Business Foundation to enhance their capacities to provide quality support services to the SMEs in Ghana. These institutions will provide galvanised management and technical business support services to the SMEs. The aim is to ensure greater local participation in the economy and to give SMEs better quality, labour and markets for their outputs.

The Ministry has established a platform called Industrial Sub-Contracting Exchange to link large scale companies with SMEs. The aspect of the industrialization programme is critical to ensuring that SMEs develop productive capacity to feed the industrial requirements of the large companies.

The Ministry is implementing an Aggressive Programme for Export Development, targeting primarily the sub-regional and international markets. This Export Diversification Programme is anchored on the national export strategy. The Ministry through Ghana Export Promotion Authority has rolled out the district level component of the strategy which involved the development of one export commodity in every district of Ghana under the Integrated Development Initiative. The initiative is underpinned by the Ministry's decision to develop potentially viable export commodity in every district to create decent livelihood within the districts.

The Ministry has developed a plan to enhance Domestic Retail Market Infrastructure and to actively promote Made in Ghana goods. The Ministry in collaboration with other MDAs especially the Local Government Ministry and District Assemblies has initiated plans to facilitate the construction of modern retail market infrastructure in the 216 districts.

In order to improve the Business environment to make Ghana an attractive destination for investments, the Ministry has set up a target of making Ghana the most business-friendly economy in Africa. In pursuit of this, the Ministry is aggressively pushing through some major reforms of the business environment of the country through its Business Environment and Regulatory Reforms initiative.

More far advanced to institutionalize and formalize the engagement between the government representing policy makers and the private sector which ordinarily must leverage the policies developed by government. The Ministry in consultations with the Office of the president is developing a framework for this crucial engagement which should lead to the organization of a periodic dialogue session. This dialogue platform will bring together government agencies and business community to engage at the highest level of policy formulation to promote inclusiveness.