Prof Stiglitz, Govt Review National Dev Plan (Spread)

Story: Lucy Adoma Yeboah
AN American Nobel Prize winner in Economics, Professor Joseph E. Stiglitz, has held discussions with government officials in Accra, believed to be centred on the technical review of a National Development Plan for Ghana.
The development plan was drafted by the National Development Planning Commission (NDPC).
The meeting, which was held yesterday behind closed doors, is also expected to enable the Ghanaian officials to learn about the Initiative Policy Dialogue (IPD), an economic think tank centre which Professor Stiglitz set up in July 2000 to help developing countries to explore policy alternatives and enable wider civic participation in economic policy making.
Professor Stiglitz, who is recognised around the world as a leading economic educator, has written many books that have been translated into more than a dozen languages.
The IDP is currently collaborating with the African Centre for Economic Transformation (ACET) which was set up in 2006 by eminent Ghanaian Economist and former staff of the United Nations, Dr K. Y. Amoako.
Before the closed-door meeting at the conference room of the Ministry of Finance and Economic, Prof. Stiglitz and a team from IPD and ACET had a brief encounter with some government officials in the presence of journalists.
Present at the meeting were the Minister of Finance and Economic Planning, Mr Kwadwo Baah-Wiredu; the Minister of State at the ministry, Dr Anthony Akoto Osei; Dr Amoako; and the Governor of the Bank of Ghana, Dr Paul Acquah, and his deputies.
The rest were the heads of the revenue agencies in Ghana, the Ghana Statistical Service, the NDPC, and directors and other senior officials of the Finance Ministry.
In his remarks, Prof. Stiglitz said Ghana, like the rest of Africa, had made some progress in development in spite of the numerous challenges facing the continent and urged Ghanaians to move on.
He touched on the soaring prices of oil and the high price of food and said there was the need for Ghana to put in place measures to check the effects of the high prices of those essential commodities.
The renowned economist commented on the fact that the world as a whole was facing difficult times due to the issues of high prices of oil and food.
Prof. Stiglitz expressed delight at Ghana’s discovery of oil in large quantities and advised the people to learn from the experiences of existing oil producing countries in order not to repeat those mistakes.
For his part, Dr Amoako said the team had plans to bring together the best minds throughout the world to help solve the problem of underdevelopment and expressed appreciation to the government of Ghana for its support to the centre.
Mr Baah-Wiredu said Ghana was ready to exploit all avenues that would benefit its people, adding that there was the need for Ghanaians to take lessons from the Asian countries as to how they managed to build their economies in spite of their problems in the past.
He touched on the energy problems that the country had to grapple with in recent years and said the government was doing all it could to solve it by constructing additional hydro dams and thermal plants and also from other sources.
Prof. Stiglitz was hosted to a dinner on Monday night and chaired a seminar on African Growth at GIMPA.
He was scheduled to meet Ghanaian journalists at the International Press Centre in Accra, hold luncheon meeting with members of the Association of Ghana Industries (AGI) and also deliver a lecture on “Transforming African Economies: Lessons from Asia” at the British Council Hall, all in Accra, later yesterday.