Businessmen urged to be environmentally conscious

THE Vice-President, Alhaji Alu Mahama, has called on businessmen in the country to be conscious of their social responsibilities to the environment and to the larger society.

He specifically called on water sachet producers to ensure that their activities did not endanger the environment and the society at large.

Speaking at the launch of the Ghana Business Code in Accra Wednesday, in a speech read on his behalf by the Ministry of Information and National Orientation, Mr. Kwamena Bartels, the Vice President also cautioned industries that spilled waste materials into streams to put a stop to such activities.

The Ghana Business Code is a set of norms introduced and adopted by three business associations, namely the Association of Ghana Industries (AGI), Ghana Employers Association (GEA) and Ghana National Chamber of Commence and Industries (GNCCI) with support from the Improving Business Practice (IBP) project.

These norms are expected to guide the conduct of business operations in the country and provide a basis of building trust between and among various stakeholders within the business, the employers, government, host communities and society.

The Vice-President called on business associations in the country to ensure that many companies signed up to the principles underlined in the code.

“The Ghana Business Code will come to nothing if it is allowed to gather dust on the shelf,” Alhahi Mahama, said adding that business was not only about profits, but also about people, society and the environment.

The Danish Ambassador to Ghana, Mr. Flemming Bjork Pedersen, said “this is an important occasion and an important tool for improving business practice in te country”.

He said the principles outlined in the business code were derived from the eight Millennium Developments Goals declared by the United Nations Secretary general. Mr. Kofi Annan.

Mr. Pedersen said governance was important to any nation as it had the tendency to increase productivity and called on businesses in the country to the code part of their daily operations.

The President of AGI, Mr. Tony Oteng-Gyasi, said the three business associations would conduct sensitisation workshop throughout the country to educate the general public as well as businesses on the need to sign up to the code.

He said it was the hope of the associations to ensure that the code become an essential platform of doing business in the country, adding that “the practices are essential for any company”.

A Deputy Minister of Trade, Industry, Private Sector Development and Presidential Special Initiative (PSI), Mr. Kwadwo Affram-Asiedu, said the launch of the business code had come at an opportune time when the country was moving from stability of the economy to growth.

He recommended the three business associations for their bold step to ensure sound in business practice in the country.

Source: Daily Graphic