A public policy round table discussion in Accra yesterday concluded that for Ghana to realize the 8% economic growth on sustainable basis, it needed to promote the concept of Private Public Partnership (PPP) in all sectors of the economy.

This concept seeks to develop a nation with the collaboration of players in both the public and the private sectors.

The roundtable discussions, sponsored by the Institute for Democratic Governance (IDEG), presented different opinions as to which form of government had been the cause of Ghana's underdeveloped status.

According to Prof. Kwame Ninson of the political science department of the University of Ghana, the state should play an intervention role to redirect the economy towards a positive path. He was however skeptical whether Ghana would achieve the targeted 8% GDP growth if things continued the way they were.

On his part, the Chief Director of the ministry of environment, Mr. Edward Osei Nsenkyire, speaking on the topic: "Repositioning agriculture to drive 8% growth", noted that agriculture should needed to grow between 14% and 15% to help the country achieve the 8% growth rate. For this to be possible, the Chief Director remarked that irrigation schemes should be provided for farmers, land tenure system modified to grant land access to farmers, institution of special agriculture interest rate from banks, investment into crop research, as well as rewarding agric-scientists well.

Nana Owusu Afari, 1st Vice President of Association of Ghana Industries (AGI), said government should play an interventionist role by supporting some fragile companies, especially those in the export sectors, to compete with imports.

He called for value added products for exports and asked for the assistance of the government to resource the Ghana Export Promotion Council to play its role as expected.

The Chief Executive Officer of Unique Trust Financial Services lamented that he had lost hope for Ghana, saying, "We failed to develop as a nation because we have never been realistic".

He revealed that the economy is currently in a reverse gear as per capita income estimated to be $2,500 in 1957, is now about $400.

"We lost everything that Dr. Nkrumah put in place during his tenure as President of Ghana, including Black Star line."

Stressing on how to solve the debt problem forever, he said the fundamental basics for reducing debt, such as attitudinal and mental changes, should be taken into consideration.

He further explained that systems must be put in place and made to work.

Dr. Maxwell Opoku-Afari at the research Department of the Bank of Ghana raised very relevant questions as to how Ghana could move from the stability status to accelerated growth.

Accelerated growth refers to an increase in GDP growth rate of 2% every year.

He disclosed that for real accelerated growth to take place, constraints to the development of the country should be eliminated.

The growth rate experienced in Ghana, although above the African average, is not exceptional by international standards. It is still below the 7% threshold required by the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) to reduce by half, between 2000 and 2015, the proportion of people whose income is less than a dollar a day.