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In a bid to attract more investors as well as to facilitate investment and expansion in key sectors of the economy, Government, through the Ghana Investment Promotion Centre Act, 1994, has provided an array of across-the-board investment incentives, including benefits for industrial estates amongst others. The Director, Marketing and Public Relations of the Ghana Investment Promotion Centre (GIPC) Edwards Ashong-Lartey, who disclosed to Peacefmonline.com after a Country Presentation on investment opportunities in Ghana at the 3rd Edition of the Annual Investment Meeting (AIM) in Dubai, also expatiated on some of the tax incentives and exemptions put in place by government to attract Foreign Direct Investment (FDI). According to him, there is a tax holiday for specific sectors especially the Agriculture and Agro-processing sector, as well as in the Affordable Housing Project. He revealed that if an investor teams up with the government to undertake Real Estate Projects, he or she is given 5yrs. ��there is the right of abode (incentive) that is the immigrant quota system which is tied to the level of investment. Currently if you invest between $10,000 and a $100,000, the company is entitled to one automatic quota�In between if you want to bring in experts to help meet your manpower needs, you can apply for time-bound work permits (6mnths, 12mths) depending on the nature of the project,� he revealed. Additionally he said, there is �guaranteed transferability of profits and dividends, transfer of funds to service loans, guarantee against expropriation and the fact that you can liquidate your holdings and transfer through the banking system. All these are in the law and most foreign investors are concerned about the safety of their investments and this is to assure them that we have enough structures in place to secure their investment.� Mr Ashong-Lartey further disclosed that in some cases, a company can negotiate specific investment incentives with the center under the �Strategic Investments� incentive. �We realize that for some projects we need to go beyond the normal incentive regime to make attractive for investors to come in and that is why we have that section under the law to enable the GIPC Board in consultation with other agencies, to negotiate benefits that will make it attractive for a company to put in let�s say a $100m project,� he stated. The GIPC Director of Marketing and Public Relations also indicated that, aside the issue of tax incentives, the center has streamlined the acquisition of operational certificate saying an investor is assured of a license �within 5 working days�. �Our law since it was passed in 1994, specify that we should be able to issue you with a certificate within 5 working days. So the system we have in place; we have the relationship manager concept. And we sector teams so if you are coming to register in a financial services company, you will be assigned to a financial services expert. He will go through the documents with you and if he certifies that your documentation is okay, then you can pay the registration fee. So if today is Monday and you will walk in, latest next Monday; probably by close of work on Friday your certificate will be ready. And I can confidently say that we sometimes do this within 3 days�.Sometimes you introduce a policy and people think that it�s a nine day wonder but this is actually happening at the GIPC,�. Asked if the GIPC does any background checks on some of these investors or their companies before giving them a license, he replied in the affirmative adding that both the Immigration and Financial Intelligence services do conduct their own investigations at various stages but these are done on the quiet so as not to scare away investors. �What we do is that there are specific guidelines. You go to the Registrar General�s Dept, you register your company, you bring in the equity. Now when you go to the bank because of the anti-money laundering activity, the Financial Intelligence Services sector advises them. So they do some bit of check. When you come to us too, we have our own way of checking on companies. And then finally when the company applies for the immigrant service quota and we issue a support letter, the Immigration service will also check the background of the individual to make that he is not someone who is on the run. So there are adequate measures put in place to do a background check. We do some of these things quietly so that we don�t send negative signals,� he pointed out. Touching on his assessment and impact of Ghana's participation at the investment forum in Dubai, Mr Ashong-Lartey who acknowledged that a country's overall investment climate is oftentimes the decision by investors to move their equity to invest in a particular area, also indicated the country�s economic achievements coupled with the political stability has led to the attraction of potential investors into the country. ��the response has been encouraging. A lot of people called at the Ghana stand to find out more about the country�.everyone is talking about Ghana because of the significant achievements we�ve made over the years�everyone wants to come and see what�s in Ghana. In the past, people viewed Africa and West Africa as an unstable region, so if the World Bank and other well-recognized bodies are singling out a particular country as a place to do business, everyone will like to come and see this country. So the interest is there,� he said.