The University of Ghana Business School (UGBS) is to hold its maiden business conference in Accra dubbed, “Business and Development in Africa:Determining New Frontiers.” Scheduled for April 8 and 9 this year, the conference would review the past to determine the new or emerging connections between business and socio-economic development in Ghana and Africa.
A statement copied to the Ghana News Agency (GNA) in Accra as part of the School’s 50th anniversary, noted that Sustainable Development had been conceptualized as ‘development that meets the needs of the present, without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.’
According to the statement, in September 2005, the United Nations World Summit identified three interdependent and mutually-reinforcing components of sustainable development, namely economic development, social development, and environmental protection.
“Beyond the Summit, governments, development agencies, private institutions and civil society organizations are striving to achieve these ideals of sustainable development. This concern for sustainable development is more pronounced in the context of developing and emerging economies,” it noted.
The conference would further seek to address the issues of how business contributes to Ghana’s and Africa’s strive to achieve sustainable development and focus on the impact that different strategic choices of businesses had on economies and societies, and on the context in which those strategic choices were made, the statement said.
It would also tackle questions as to how businesses contribute to the socio-economic development of people and localities and the role of business in economic development and environmental protection.
According to the statement, “the conference has seven key tracks, namely Accounting; Finance, Banking and Insurance; Marketing and Entrepreneurship; Operations and Management Information Systems; Organization and Human Resource Management; Public Administration and Health Services Management; and Environment and Sustainability.”
The UGBS said academics and practitioners were welcome to submit papers and extended abstracts to the key tracks of the conference, adding the conference would also organize two workshops, namely a doctoral consortium for doctoral and graduate research students; and an inter-tertiary forum for undergraduates.
