Mr Hackman Kwame Owusu-Agyemang, an aspiring flagbearer of the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP) at the weekend whipped up enthusiasm among Volta Regional potential delegates of the party with a chronological perspective of his contribution to the growth of the party. "Among all the 19 aspirants my contribution to the Danquah-Busia tradition is unparalleled, I have also chalked enough experience both as a party man and with a global perspective to deal with the challenges of the country at the moment, I therefore deserve the nod," he stated. Addressing potential delegates from the 22 Constituencies in the region at separate forums at Akasti and Ho, Mr Owusu-Agyemang said: "I believe that my credentials assume gargantuan proportion in this regard". He asserted that he had demonstrated for the past years his commitment to the party as no other party member had done. "I have stoically stood by the party in thick or thin whether in the acquisition of our original Kokomlemle headquarters or the resolution of the infamous Concordia Ventures saga or the acquisition of vehicles or the setting up of the party Club House or provision of resources for the party," he emphasised. On his vision as a President, Mr Owusu-Agyemang pledged to reinforce the relative social and economic stability that had been established by the government of President John Agyekum Kufuor. "We would pursue proactive economic development policies that would lead to concrete, accelerated, incremental and sustained economic growth," he added. According to him, his government would urgently establish a national development think tank drawn from government, private sector, academia, youth, trade unions and all sides of the political divide. The think tank, he continued would be involved in ideas generation and would basically focus on doable ideas leading to policy formation and implementation. Mr Owusu-Agyemang, who is also a Member of Parliament for New Juaben, and a former Minister of Water Resources, Works and Housing as well as Foreign Affairs, maintained that his government would in addition, seek for intellectual entrepreneurs who are incubators of practical and innovative ideas. "Hackman would create a centre for creative ideas for the people to professionally assess the feasibility of ideas for vigorous follow up irrespective of political affiliations," he noted. The former Foreign Minister said "we would strengthen the financial system for it to be able to finance our nation's accelerated growth agenda with abundant and cheap credit. "We would continue rebuilding the nation's economic and social infrastructure to support accelerated growth that put cash into the pockets of the average worker". On education, he pledged that his government would reinforce the education reforms in order that the youth in the country would be challenged to develop their God-given talents and equipped with nation building skills in the wealth creation process. Mr Owusu-Agyemang stressed that the 21st Century called for greater collaboration amongst government, private sector and high education for complex adaptive research and development projects in the fields of technology, agriculture, health, science and engineering. Under his government, he promised to review the possibility of National Service personnel undertaking at least greater part of their service with the military in residence to inculcate the spirit of patriotism and discipline in them. "As President I would pursue programmes and policies that would empower citizens by pushing control out of the bureaucracy to the community to vigorously monitor and evaluate the performance of service providers to ensure accountability and equality of service". He said under his administration, the state would learn from the mistakes of other African oil producing countries in order not to be guilty of mismanagement of oil revenue from the drilling of oil from the Tano Fields. The flagbearer aspirant contested for the New Juabeng Parliamentary seats on the ticket of the NPP in the 1996 and 2000 elections and won to represent the constituency in Parliament. During the Second Term of the Fourth Republic, he was the Shadow Minister of Foreign Affairs and Ranking Member for Foreign Affairs. Mr Owusu-Agyemang, therefore appealed to the delegates to assess him based on his contributions to the growth of the party, international contacts, which he described as vital for economic development and general experience gained in government and private practices and vote for him to lead the party to victory. Source: GNA