President John Dramani Mahama
The President, John Dramani Mahama, has underscored the importance of long-term development plans to the socio-economic prosperity of nations, adding that while short- and medium-term development plans are relevant, they are effective only if situated within long-term frameworks.
President Mahama said countries that had achieved high income growth and socio-economic prosperity were those who had implemented long-term development plans with some consistency, be it formal or informal.
He, therefore, called on all Ghanaians to eschew partisan political considerations and to work together in the national interest to produce a long-term National Development Plan for Ghana.
He was delivering the key note address at the launch of the process towards the preparation of a 40-year National Development Plan for Ghana (2018-2057) in Accra, yesterday.
President Mahama stressed the need for broad consultations and collaboration from all stakeholders in the development of the Plan and urged the National Development Planning Commission (NDPC) to take into consideration the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) which were about to be launched at the end of the year, when implementation of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) came to an end.
He said there was also the need to be guided by the failures and successes of previous national development plans and learn lessons from them in order to produce a document that would be acceptable to all Ghanaians, adding that the document should reflect the demands of the Constitution, society, the community and the economy.
In a presentation on the nature of the 40-year National Development Plan, the Director-General, NDPC, Dr Nii Moi Thompson, explained that a long-term national development plan was a requirement of law as well as a popular request by the people of Ghana which emerged during the Constitution Review Exercise.
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