The Minister of Trade and Industry, Dr Ekow Spio-Garbrah, has subtly criticised Members of Parliament (MPs) for furnishing Parliament with chairs imported from China.
Dr Spio-Garbrah said at a time that there was an active campaign for Ghanaians to purchase made-in-Ghana goods, it was wrong for MPs to have imported chairs that could have been produced locally.
However, he said the tendency to opt for foreign products instead of local ones was not peculiar to MPs.
Speaking at the Graphic Business – Fidelity Bank Economic Dialogue held Wednesday at the Movenpick Ambassadors Hotel in Accra, the Minister said many Ghanaians also use imported furniture products at home instead of locally manufactured ones.
He said. “So if any of us have bought and are buying foreign furniture instead of Ghanaian made furniture we are equally liable for the concerns that we are raising. Before you move the speck from your brother’s eye you should look at the moth in your own eye…So we can blame Parliament if we want but I’m saying that the fault is in ourselves and not necessarily in Parliament alone.”
A section of participants at the forum
Speaking on the, ‘Role of SMEs in Economic Development’, Dr Spio-Garbrah stressed the need for Ghanaians to patronise locally made products as part of efforts to stimulate growth among SMEs in the country.
In this regard, the Minister said he had urged staff of his Ministry to voluntarily wear clothes made from local fabrics to work every day.
Made-in-Ghana clothes are usually worn to work across the country on Fridays, but Dr Garbah wants it to be worn every day to boost growth in the fashion industry.
The Graphic Business-Fidelity Bank Economic Dialogue series is a quarterly forum aimed at facilitating discussions between government and the business community regarding the growth of the Ghanaian economy.
Source: Graphic Online
