The Country Director of the World Bank (Ghana) office, Ishac Diwan, has given a strong indication that the bank is “going all out for the agric sector” in 2011. Mr. Diwan who made this revelation at a meet-the-press in Accra on Thursday said, there are a variety of projects being instituted to bring modernization and development to the second highest contributor to Ghana’s economic growth. The Ghana Statistical Services announced in October this year that between January and June 2010 the agricultural sector contributed 35.6 per cent to Ghana's gross domestic product, only second to the services sector which contributed 36.1 per cent. Mr. Diwan told the media that the bank has placed a lot of emphasis on an operation to support research in agriculture. He said this project is a regional scheme where specific countries in the region focus their research on a particular crop and its varieties. The Country Director who has had extensive working experience on the continent said “there is a project to support commercial agriculture with an amount of $100 million. This is to create a set up in government where they can actively get business in agriculture [from] both domestic and foreign [markets].” He added that “we [The World Bank] are convinced that now that there is oil and gold, it is important that the other [key sector], agriculture, takes off as well. To create jobs, to create opportunities for businesses in agriculture and fisheries and livestock. The idea is really to push now so that the young people will be interested, to become entrepreneurs in the agricultural sector.” On the fisheries sector, Mr. Diwan said the bank will make available an amount of $50 million to finance projects designed to modernize the fisheries industry as well. He said this will include reducing the large trawlers on the sea that hamper the harvest by the small scale fisher folks, adding that this will also ensure that the small scale fishermen are licensed. Part of the amount, he explained, will also be invested in improving the efficiencies of the small scale fisher folk whiles creating a knowledge system to aid them in productive fishing. Mr. Diwan posited that the underlying goal of these investments in the agricultural sector is to turn Ghana into the new frontier of agro-business in the next ten years as has been the case in Brazil. On the issue of the proposal to collateralize Ghana’s future oil resources by government, Mr. Diwan said the politicians can deliberate and come out with the appropriate way to go in effectively utilising the revenue to benefit the people of Ghana but indicated that due to the “intense political competition” in the country it is always a problem in how these monies are spent. He said “any government may be tempted to be myopic and to over spend in the short term even on things that are not worth it...You need micro stability, you need financial discipline, you need all government, [whether right or left] before and after election to be disciplined and reasonable and not jeopardize micro stability,” stressing that the collateralization should not be used as a basis to spend unnecessarily to endanger gains made in economic stability. Other projects that the World Bank is preparing to undertake are the $200 million budgetary support for the 2011 budget and a proposal for a $150 million project in decentralization and development of small towns which he said will go to the WB board in March 2011 for approval. Story by Derick Romeo Adogla/Myjoyonline.com/Ghana