Special topics
The Ghana Extractive Industry Safety Conference (GEISC) has officially been launched by the Sekondi-Takoradi Chamber of Commerce and Industry (STCCI) in Takoradi.
The event – GEISC – is expected to be held in October this year and will be on the theme “Driving Industrial excellence through health and safety”, and has the central objective of identifying new trends, standards, innovations, risks and opportunities in health and safety in the extractive industry.
“This is not only for the big players in the industry – we have special packages for Small and Medium Enterprises (SME’s); we are going to come out with a roadshow, and a booth will be mounted for SMEs to compete with the big industries,” Ato VanEss, Chairman of STCCI, said at the launch.
According to him, the GEISC will bring together international and local investors, companies, exporters as well as trade consultants, national regulators, government, trade unions and international representatives among others.
He explained that the focus is on extractives since they are the leading industry in the country and are open to occupational hazard – health and safety are especially important to the SME’s who are contractors to these extractive industry.
Again, he said assessment of health and safety issues and their impact on emerging economies will be another focal point.
He pointed out that the conference wil be in seven thematic areas which include: global occupational healtha and safety policies and regulations, available standards and policy framework in Ghana, and safety leadership.
The rest he mentioned were contractor safety management training workforce development and competency management; improving regulatory environment as well as safety and environmental standards and local content. The GEISC will be held from October 22-24 this year.
