Tema, July 13, GNA – The Ghana Merchant Navy Officers Association (GMNOA) has called on the government to put in place a comprehensive maritime policy to attract investors into the shipping and maritime industry.
Captain Etoenyo Onassis Bankas, General Secretary of the GMNOA, and Mr Pius Anani Dumashie, Vice Chairman of the GMNOA said the lack of a comprehensive maritime policy in the country makes it difficult for investors to see the focus of the country in the sector and where to invest in.
The GMNOA Executives made the appeal at the Ghana News Agency Tema Regional Office’s Industrial News Hub Boardroom Dialogue platform.
The Industrial News Hub Boardroom Dialogue is a media think-tank platform for state and non-state and commercial and business operators to communicate to the world.
Capt. Bankas said just like Singapore which has a policy to make their country a leading maritime hub in the world, Ghana must also dialogue for inputs from the various stakeholders in the blue economy to get a comprehensive maritime policy that could set goals for the industry.
He said the maritime industry has a huge potential for the country/s’s revenue base.
He said, “Ghana needs that policy to give a platform for sea transport to thrive to promote the economy, shipping offers the cheapest cost of transporting goods from one place to the other, therefore if we can get people to invest into it, we stand a good chance of raking in more revenue.”
Capt Bankas said because there was no direction, everybody was doing what they like in the industry which was not helping the system saying if for instance Ghana planned and worked towards getting about 50 commercial ships in its register, it meant more people would be employed directly and indirectly from their activities.
He said Ghana has enough seafarers to operate commercial ships and therefore called on investors to consider investing in the sector as it could yield high profits.
Capt. Bankas said shipping has four markets that investors could consider, namely ship building, ship demolishing, freight, sales and purchase.
“We have before us a very broad market and we believe that with effort and the proper comprehensive maritime policy, we should be able to bring back the fortunes of our country,” he said.
Mr Dumashie, on his part, said the government was not in the position to own commercial ships therefore the need for governments to create the needed opportunities and environment for private investors to venture into the shipping industry.
Mr Francis Ameyibor, Tema Regional Manager of the GNA, on his part, said journalists needed to take steps to report on the blue economy, which was an emerging concept which encouraged better stewardship of the ocean or ‘blue’ resources.
“GNA-Tema Regional team is being schooled on the blue economy to serve as vanguard of blue economy reporters to ensure social equity, while significantly reducing environmental risks and ecological scarcities, which forms the basis for the blue economy,” Mr Ameyibor said.
He said it was common knowledge that a lot of things happened at sea and in the fishing industry that the public needed more enlightenment on, therefore the need to engage the Ghana Merchant Navy Officers Association to throw light on its sector.
Mr Ameyibor explained that activities at sea were one of the most dynamic but under-reported from the media, therefore the agency had created a platform to offer stakeholders news channel to reach out to the world.
GNA