NDC REMAINS FOCUSED ON INVESTING IN PEOPLE — AGYENIM-BOATENG (PAGE 16, MARCH 12, 2010)

THE Deputy Minister of Information, Mr James Agyenim-Boateng, has reiterated that the Mills administration under the National Democratic Congress Government is focusing on investing in people and the creation of jobs.
He therefore said, the Government would work hard to resuscitate the economy with a view to creating the enabling environment for the private sector to expand and open up more job opportunities for all.
This, he said, would absorb the numerous skilled but untapped labour, especially from the tertiary institutions every year.
Mr Agyenim-Boateng was speaking at the opening ceremony of a two-day seminar on Entrepreneurship and Economic Potentials of Intellectual Property at the Takoradi Polytechnic last weekend.
The seminar organised by the Intellectual Property Assets Rights Management (IPARM), in collaboration with the Takoradi Polytechnic chapter of Students In Free Enterprise (SIFE), was aimed at creating awareness among students and potential entrepreneurs about the economic potentials of intellectual property for generating employment and contributing to the country’s development.
Mr Agyenim-Boateng said the Government was also committed to encouraging and providing incentives to persons who wanted to be self employed.
He said in addition to the Venture Capital Trust Fund which was available to provide funding for ventures initiated by businesses, there were other avenues including the revamped and much focused Microfinance and Small Loans Centre (MASLOC).
He said it was clear that the rate of graduate turn-out every year could not and was not keeping pace with the capacities of industries to absorb, leading to excess human capital being under utilised”, he noted.
Therefore, he added that the Government supported the efforts by the members of the civil society to create entrepreneurial drive and self-employment techniques among the young people.
Mr Agyenim-Boateng commended the management of IPARM and SIFE for the initiative to introduce the student body to the economic potential that could be tapped in the area of intellectual property.
He said intellectual property had been proven, globally, to be a source of great value in job creation and also value additions in the copyright and related rights industries, technology transfer and innovations in patents, expansion of business income in trademarks and service marks, through marketing opportunities on the internet, to the enhancement of national image in national branding.
“In most developing countries, including Ghana, the small and medium enterprises sector stands to gain a lot through the use of intellectual property in promoting local production, direct commercialisation of intellectual property assets and by linkages with large enterprises through the use of intellectual property mechanisms”, he said.
The Chief Executive Officer of IPARM, Mr John Assan Benson, called on the Government to initiate conscious and integrated programmes to raise the level of awareness of the population about national and international intellectual property systems.
He also urged the Government to introduce intellectual property into the core curricula of second cycle and tertiary institutions, and also to encourage the full participation of all interest groups, creators, intellectual property holders, the universities, polytechnics among others to optimise the benefits of the intellectual property system.