Accra — The Chief Executive Officer of the Timber Industry Development Division of the Forestry Commission, Alhassan Attah, has indicated that the wood industry of the country is key to mobilizing resources towards national development.

This he said stemmed from the fact that the wood industry has played a major role towards the success story of the country by raising GDP to 60% whilst accounting 10% for export earnings.

Speaking in an interview with The Chronicle, he noted that the wood industry is ranked fourth after minerals, cocoa and tourism in terms of export earnings for the country. "If you look at the last 5years in terms of export earnings, the wood industry stabilized around U.S.$2million level and this is because our main part of export is primary processing, that is sawn timber, veneer and some plywood" he said.

Mr. Alhassan further stated that the wood industry has for the past decade provided an employment avenue for most Ghanaians from all walks of life, not even to talk of the 'foreign exchange it has earned for the country.

With the Ghana International Furniture and Woodworking Industry Exhibition (GIFEX) coming off in October 2008, Mr. Alhassan noted "the idea of the exhibition is to make the wood industry of the country the hub of processing wood in West Africa".

In order for the wood industry to achieve its aim of becoming the hub of wood processing in the sub-region, it has instituted a number of strategies including adding value to its products, doing away with primary processing whilst focusing on tertiary processing.

He debunked the notion that whilst championing the cause of wood industry in the country, the environment would be depleted.

"Take China, Singapore and Vietnam, they are producing furniture but none of them is a wood producing country but they are manufacturing wood products the way we do here in Ghana" he emphasized.

He emphasized that the country "could bring in materials elsewhere and manufacture the products and re-export it to earn foreign exchange".

Mr. Alhassan says there has been a tremendous improvement in the industry, stressing that "it is a clear indication that the industry is doing very well in the country and that is why we want to add value to our products in order to become the hub of wood processing on the continent".