The commitment of the government to protect the environment at all costs and ensure its sustainability and the support of Republic of South Korea to the national COVID-19 response efforts with medical face shields worth US$50,000 are some of the trending stories in the Ghanaian press on Tuesday.
The Graphic reports that the Vice-President, Dr Mahamudu Bawumia, has reiterated government’s commitment to protect the environment at all costs and ensure its sustainability.
“We have to acknowledge that Ghana is not made up of only humans, but it is also made up of the soil, mountains, valleys, forest, rivers, lakes and the sea, plant and animal lives as well, without them, we humans cannot and will not survive.
“We must acknowledge that the natural environment has a right to be here as we humans do,” the Vice-President stressed in his keynote address at the Northern Belt Consultative Dialogue on small-scale mining and deforestation in Tamale yesterday.
He said the contributions of the mineral and forest resources to the country’s national development agenda could not be over-emphasised, and condemned Ghanaians who were exploiting the natural resources of the country for their selfish gains.
The consultative dialogue, on the theme: ” Sustainable small-scale mining and forest conservation for national development,” was attended by captains of the mining and forest industry, academia, members of civil society organisations (CSOs), ministers of state and their deputies; traditional authorities and a section of the public.
It was to collate views towards the sustainable management of the country’s natural resources and the environment for national development.
The government decided to add deforestation to the consultative meeting held in Tamale because of the fragile ecological sector of the northern part of the country.
The newspaper says that the Republic of South Korea has supported the national COVID-19 response efforts with medical face shields worth US$50,000.
Since the onset of the global pandemic, South Korea has been assisting the country both in cash and in kind to prevent the spread of the virus.
About 100,000 of the face shields are to be distributed to critical care health workers in various health facilities in the country to boost case management.
The Minister of Health, Mr Kwaku Agyeman-Manu, who received the items in Accra last Friday, expressed gratitude to the government and the people of South Korea for their continuous support to the country, particularly the health sector.
He described the Korea Foundation for International Health (KOFIH) and the Korea International Cooperation Agency (KOICA) as “dependable partners in the sector”.
“I believe it is the mutual cooperation between Ghana and Korea that ensured our successful response to the COVID-19 pandemic; internationally, Ghana and Korea are recognised for our COVID-19 response interventions,” the minister added.
The Deputy Minister for Multilateral and Global Affairs of the Republic of Korea, Mr Ham Sang-wook, who made the presentation, said the gesture was in response to global calls for oneness in the fight against the pandemic.
The Graphic also reports that the Ghana Statistical Service (GSS) has, for the second time, extended the mop-up enumeration exercise for the 2021 Population and Housing Census (PHC).
To last for 12 days (July 19 – 30), the latest extension is to allow the GSS to exhaust the remaining six percent of households that are yet to be covered in the exercise in some parts of the country.
The 2021 PHC, which started on Monday, June 28 in all 16 regions, was expected to end on Sunday, July 11, 2021, but the GSS extended the deadline to Sunday, July 18.
According to the GSS, the move was to ensure that all persons in the country were reached and counted.
At a press briefing in Accra on Monday, July 19, the Government Statistician, Prof. Kobina Annim, said at the end of the initial mop-up exercise, 94 per cent of the listed households were enumerated, leaving a backlog of six per cent to be cleared.
He indicated that in line with the GSS’s principle of leaving no one uncounted, the service gave a second window to ensure that everyone was counted to get reliable data on the country.
Prof. Annim added that as of Sunday, July 18, the data collected showed that apart from the Greater Accra Region where 75 per cent of the households had been enumerated, all the other regions exceeded 90 per cent enumeration status.
The Times says that the Minister of Finance, Mr Ken Ofori-Atta, is expected to move for the adoption of the Mid-Year Review Budget Statement and Economic Policy of Government this week.
The Mid-Year Budget, which is the Government’s supplementary estimate for the 2021 financial year, would be proposed to the House on Thursday, July 22, at the Parliament House, Accra.
Mr Alexander Afenyo-Markin, the Deputy Majority Leader, announced this on the floor of the House in Accra, on Friday, when he presented the Business Statement for the Ninth Week Ending Friday, July 23, 2021, of the current meeting of the Legislature.
He said Tuesday, July 20, is a public holiday in respect of the Eid ul-Adha, and would be observed as such.
The Finance Minister would also answer a question on the cost of President Akufo-Addo’s official travels to France, Belgium and South Africa in May, this year.
He is expected to tell the House the cost of air travel of the President using chartered flight between 2013 and 2016.
GIK/APA