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Tuesday, July 8, 2008

Ghana gets $15.560m Swiss grant


The Swiss Government through its economic and trade policy measures on priority countries including Ghana, has earmarked an amount of $15.560 million as part of its commitment towards improving living standards in the country.
Part of the amount is aimed at improving the electricity sector and its regulatory agency, the Public Utilities Regulatory Commission (PURC) through the Ministry of Energy.
The financial volume is $12 million which would be used to support three main components in the electricity sector namely; management support to Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG), rural electrification and capacity building to the PURC.
Out of the initial amount, $760,000 is earmarked to provide technical assistance to modernise the national Intellectual Property (IP) programme being spearheaded by the government of Ghana.
The Ministry of Trade and Industry, Private Sector Development (PSD) and President’s Special Initiative (PSI) is the main partner in this regard.
In an interview with the Swiss Ambassador to Ghana in Accra, His Excellency Nicholas Lang told the paper that his Government was concerned with strengthening standardisation and conformity assessment Institutions in the country to facilitate trade, hence the grant. The money involved is a whooping $2.8 million.
In effect, the Ministry, (Trade and Industry, PSD & PSI) has been mandated to develop credible conformity assessment bodies to enhance the country’s integration into the multilateral trading system.
According to Ambassador Lang, assistance would also be given to strengthen local consumer participation in the national standardisation process.
These initiatives by the Swiss Government forms part of its four year credit programme to assist developing countries strengthen their economies towards poverty alleviation whilst improving living standards.
“The primary objectives of the measures are to integrate partner countries into the global economy and to promote their sustainable economic growth, thereby making an effective contribution to long term poverty reduction”, said the Swiss Ambassador to Ghana.
The Ghanaian economy is among other six countries to benefit from a US $800 million over a period of four years.
Out of the amount ($800m), Ghana is expected to earn about US$60 million within the stipulated period of four years.

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