Ghana could provide social and economic development if turned to SME-Jonah

GNA – Mr Kwasi Jonah, Head of the Political Science Department of the University of Ghana, Legon, has said that Ghana could provide a viable route to economic and social development if it should turn to a Social Marketing Economy (SME).
  He explained that with the guidance of International Monetary Fund and the World Bank, African countries that embarked on their post-colonial development programmes staged a massive neo-liberal economic reform with the main objective of getting prices right and throwing their states out of the widow.
   "Though by doing this there was economic reforms, there was no social development, turning to SME could provide a viable rout to economic and social development to Ghanaians".
   Mr Jonah said this at the New Patriotic Party’s (NPP) National Executive Retreat, which was held at Mankesim in the Central Region.
   It was organized by NPP in collaboration with Konrad-Adenuer-Stiftung (KAS), one of the seven pillars of the German Political Foundation that seeks to promote the ideals of good governance across the globe.
   The retreat was held for the old national executives to officially handover to the new executives and plan ahead for their victory in 2012 election.
   The NPP, which is a conservative group, has a link with the Christian Democratic Union of Germany that also shares the key idea of social market economy with the Party.
   Mr Jonah said the superior economic performance of SME was evident in the strong performance of the German economy, the largest export economy in the world and one that rose from the ashes of war to become the third richest country in the world.
  Mr Jonah explained that SME was aimed at attaining mass prosperity for all literally socializing the benefits of the market and has the Golden Rule of being Freedom of Competition.
  This means that SME are equal opportunity for all, widest possible distribution of wealth through the market mechanism rather than government intervention and personal incentive for higher productivity.
  The role of SME, he said, was to provide the incentives for the production of new goods and services while the state was only to be an enabler and a regulator but not a provider of goods and services.
   Mr Jonah advised that SME should not be regarded only as a model for economic efficiency but a concept that has replaced the concept of economic man with that of a social man.
   "For the purpose of all economic activity is to serve human being and enhance the dignity of the human", he added.
GNA
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