Professor Gyan-Baffour Praises Private Sector For Fighting Coronavirus

General news for Wednesday, September 16, 2020

Source: GNA

2020-09-16

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Professor George Yaw Gyan-Baffour, Minister of Planning, praised the private sector for supporting the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic.

He said the response from the private sector was overwhelming when the call was made to complement the government’s efforts to combat the pandemic through the COVID-19 Trust Fund.

Professor Gyan-Baffour spoke at the 3rd Accra Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) Virtual Investment Fair in Accra on the theme: “Regaining momentum in SDG implementation during and after COVID-19”.

In 2018, the Ministry of Finance, in collaboration with the Ghana Investment Promotion Center and the ODS Advisory Unit, launched the annual ODS Investment Fair to encourage private financing of the Sustainable Development Goals.

The fair aims to facilitate collaboration between investors and sustainable projects / companies from the public and private sectors.

He said the pandemic had been a shock and had disrupted plans to achieve some of the SDGs.

The Minister of Planning said that despite the challenges, “we must be consistent and resilient in achieving the goals of the SDGs.”

He said the pandemic had exposed the nation’s infrastructure gaps, indicating that much needed to be done to close “our infrastructure gap.”

Professor Baffour called on the private sector to seize the opportunities presented by the COVID-19 pandemic to expand its operations.

He said there was a need for financing options for small and medium-sized enterprises for sustainability in accelerating the achievements of the SDGs.

The minister said that in the era of the new normal, innovation, information and communication technology in education and telemedicine were necessary to drive the system forward.

Charles Adu Boahen, Vice Minister of Finance, said that COVID-19 had a major impact on some of the SDG targets and called for a partnership to drive implementation of the targets.

He said the government had launched a $ 100 billion “Ghana CARES” program to mitigate the economic challenges of the pandemic and urged private sector actors to take advantage of the program to renew their businesses.

Adu Boahen said it was part of the government’s determined steps to get the economy back on track and work to “anchor the comprehensive transformation of our society.”

He said that the initiative has two phases: a Stabilization Phase that will run from July to the end of the year (2020); and a Medium Term Revitalization Phase (to be implemented between 2021 and 2023) to revitalize the economy and accelerate Ghana Beyond Aid’s transformation agenda.

“The stabilization phase of Ghana’s CARES program will ensure food security, protect businesses and workers’ incomes, strengthen the health system, attract private investment and support Ghanaian businesses,” he said.

Adu Boahen said the world needed to put in place a recovery plan on the impact of the pandemic, and that Africa needed to have a marshal plan to continue to manage its human and development agenda in the post-COVID-19 era.

The Accra SDGs 2020 Virtual Investment Fair is to provide a platform to explore new opportunities within the new normal, identify innovative ways to access financial resources during the COVID-19 pandemic and recovery, share experiences related to individual and corporate adaptability to root of Covid -19 and regain momentum for the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals.

The Accra SDG Investment Fair brought together high-level government officials, community facilitators, investors, civil society organizations, entrepreneurs, knowledge institutions and other stakeholders to help develop a sustainable network for post-COVID strategies -19 that will support the government’s vision of a Ghana beyond. Help.

Topics under discussion include; “The Recovery and Resilience Response Path, The Socio-Economic Impact of COVID-19 on the SDGs, A Post-COVID-19 Vision of Sustainable Enterprises, Financing for Development and the New Normal: Innovations in Education.”