By Mohamed Kamara
Talks on the need to stabilize inflation on the country’s appalling economy have been bolstered by private and public sector engagements.
A dialogue on policies to be drafted to ensure stability in the economy, ensuring price control and removing obstacles affecting the smooth running of the national economy, is high on government’s agenda.
On Tuesday November 21, 2023, the Director of the Ministry of Trade and Industry Mr. Emmanuel Billy Konjoh, said government is in the process of drafting policies aimed at stabilizing the economic challenges in the country.
The government seeks to work plans to ensure that higher prices on essential imported commodities in the local markets are minimized.
He said trade ministry will engage the private sector particularly, the Sierra Leone Importers Association, to discuss the way forward in order to introduce new regulations.
The regulations are meant to ensure sanity in the business sector, thereby creating a way for an ease on the exchange of goods by importers and local business people.
He also highlighted the growth of the country’s manufacturing Gross Domestic Product (GDP) which, he said, has increased over the previous five years from 3%-17% in the industrial sector.
He noted that the new law will have to focus on the essentials of the international and global trade standards of which Sierra Leone is a signatory to.
In his contributions, the Deputy Secretary General of the Serra Leone Importers Association, Alhaji S. Barrie, said the new law focuses on working to resolving the many discrepancies seen in the private sector, adding that, the a lack of collaboration of the Sierra Leone Chamber of Commerce with trade industry has caused a stall in progress.
He said the goals envisage to be achieved by the proposed Act cannot be made possible without “importers” being cooperative to speak on one voice.
He said in Serra Leone, the principal importers who are the Indians, Lebanese and Indigenous Communities don’t speak from a “united” point of view.
And. as a result, he went on, this is making it extremely difficult for [government] to control the prices of essential goods in the country.
He said the monopoly, dubbed as exclusive right, being enjoyed by certain importers on the importation of goods, is a “serious barrier.”
The trade director, however; denied this and noted that the Chamber of Commerce and Industry is the umbrella body that represents all functioning economic and professional bodies in the country.
He also denies that there are exclusive rights enjoyed by importers.
Instead, he went on, it is only that certain importers had applied to the Registrar General’s Office for the importation of Trade Marks.