{"id":65567,"date":"2014-11-16T16:36:14","date_gmt":"2014-11-16T16:36:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/4cd.e16.myftpupload.com\/?p=65567"},"modified":"2014-11-16T16:44:03","modified_gmt":"2014-11-16T16:44:03","slug":"china-chairs-catholic-bishops-conference-condemn-mps","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/2014\/11\/china-chairs-catholic-bishops-conference-condemn-mps\/","title":{"rendered":"China chairs: Catholic Bishops\u2019 Conference\u00a0condemn MPs"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Ghana Catholic Bishops\u2019 Conference\u00a0has condemned Parliament for importing furniture from China<\/span><\/a><\/strong> to furnish the chamber of the Ghanaian legislature.<\/p>\n

They remarked that the importation of the furniture was occurring at a time when there are no \u201caggressive efforts to set up more industries to take care of rising youth unemployment and low levels of development.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe join our voices to those of the many Ghanaians who disapprove of the importation of furniture from China for our Parliament when made-in-Ghana furniture could have been patronized to boost the furniture industry and the economy as a whole,\u201d it said.<\/p>\n

[contextly_sidebar id=”pIKbtyEYiDew5tPO4CdrxIGFU4K84RTO”]This was made known in a Communiqu\u00e9 issued by the Ghana Catholic Bishops\u2019 Conference\u00a0at the end of the 2014 plenary Assembly in Accra.<\/p>\n

It was on the theme: The Pastoral Challenges of the Family in the Context of Evangelization.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Communiqu\u00e9 touched on family life, issues of corruption in the society, reproductive health of the youth, the Ghanaian economy, among others.<\/p>\n

Under the section which addressed Ghana\u2019s Economy and the Family, the Ghana Catholic Bishops\u2019 Conference\u00a0noted that the inexcusable action of Parliament only goes to \u201cimpact negatively on most families, leading to despair, poverty, sense of abandonment and marginalization.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThey threaten the stability of families making it difficult for them to actually live out their expectations as Christian families,\u201d they added.<\/p>\n

Buy and sell economy\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

They also complained bitterly about the state of the nation\u2019s economy saying, \u201cwe bemoan the nature of fact that Ghana\u2019s economy is fast becoming one of ‘buying and selling’.\u201d<\/p>\n

According to them, there is consistent high cost of living, hyper-inflation, a depreciating cedi, \u00a0high cost of goods and services and unbearably high taxes, causing many nascent private businesses to fold up.<\/p>\n

They however acknowledge the various efforts of government, aimed at improving the economy, including the ongoing discussions with the International Monetary Fund<\/strong><\/span><\/a> (IMF), the signing of the Economic Partnership Agreement<\/strong><\/span><\/a> (EPA) and the Senchi Consensus<\/strong><\/a><\/span>.<\/p>\n

They were hopeful that these interventions will lead to economic transformation that will \u201carrest the rising spate of youth unemployment and low levels of development.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe pray that our own home-grown economic policies such as those implemented under the Savannah Accelerated Development Authority (SADA), the Ghana Youth Employment and Entrepreneurial Development Authority (GYEEDA) and the Youth Enterprise Support (YES) may be led by qualified and competent persons.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese policies should be given the utmost priority over externally-funded support programmes. Our experience is that externally-funded economic interventions almost always lead to unbearable consequences on citizens.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

By: Efua Idan Osam\/citifmonline.com\/Ghana
\nFollow @osamidan<\/a>
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