The Ghana Chamber of Construction Industry has asked government to consider members of the association in the plan to build 88 district hospitals across the country.
Government as part of efforts to improve access to healthcare announced to construct 100 bed hospitals in 88 districts nationwide.
In addition, government would also provide new regional hospitals in regions that do not have one.
Already, government had indicated that it will ensure that these projects are executed by local construction companies.
The Ghana Chamber of Construction companies wants government to honour its pledge insisting that its members have the capacity to execute these projects.
Chief Executive Officer of the Ghana Chamber of Construction Industry, Emmanuel Martey, said, “Our membership includes Surveying, Engineering, Architecture, Planning up to management, so we want to partner government to ensure this laudable idea is implemented and the benefits inure to Ghanaians. So we are very much interested and we want to appeal to government, we have the expertise locally”.
Mr. Martey made these assertions on the sidelines of the launch of a Public-Private Dialogue Platform (PPD).
The platform will enable the public and private sectors dialogue on issues that affect the construction industry. The platform would consist on policy makers, the business community, research institutions, civil society organisations and the media.
The chamber says government has on a number of times embarked on projects without engaging stakeholders in the private sector, a phenomenon the platform seeks to address.
“This platform would ensure that the gap between academia and industry is closed, the differences between the public sector and the private sector are ironed out so that we are on the same level because the interest of both the private and the public is to ensure that we have value for money from the developments that are done. So how do we ensure that they are done? The PPD is for major policy issues which we believe that if we discuss objectively and dispassionately and we arrive on a conclusion then we are committed to implement the conclusion that we arrive at which would lead to the required results”, Mr Martey added.