 To say thank you to Wyder for the opportunity to share my views in this book and in particular thank Tony and Alan for their leadership in coordinating this project. I think the story of the extractives in a lot of the low-income countries can be summed up in a kind of folklore in Ghana, a Ghanaian folklore that is about the hunter and the game, and that's how it goes, that we are happy with the game of the hunter. We really love the soup prepared out of the game of the hunter, but we really are disgusted by the dress of the hunter. So if the outfit really disgusts us, but we want to eat the product of his game, I think it is the same with most government who really are happy together, foreigners change, they are happy together, the revenues and so on and so forth, but really are disgusted by either the perceived or the real negativities of the extractives. And for that reason, sometimes they are deprived of the opportunity to really fully understand the full story of the extractive. I think that's really the crux of the matter. So what I sought to do in the book was to say that, look, let's, I was singing the folkloric song from my head. Now what I sought to do in the book was to say that, look, let's accept the reality that there is huge potential in using the extractives as a basis for sort of catalyzing development and transformation in these regions. And that, I mean, the transformative power that is inherent in the extractive actually depends on the kind of regulations that you have. So in effect, what I argue is that the heart of the transformative role of resource exploitation is an effective regulatory framework. So I guess that's the key thing. And I am not going to bore you with definitions of what a regulation is in order because it's all in the books. But suffice it to say that they are just the rules of the game. And of course, if you come up with a regulation, you expect to influence the eventual outcome. And that a well-functioning regulatory system must be balanced. It must have accountability, transparency, and consistency. Now again, we all know the benefit of effective regulatory framework because obviously it will guide the promotion of investment in the sector. It will also help establish procedures and help manage the utilization of the resources. So basically there are benefits in using regulation as tool for resource transformation. So basically that's what we're looking at. Now let me focus on Ghana. I am sure people know Ghana. I mean, for those who have read history, you knew Ghana first as gold coasts, just reflecting the perceived insatiable amount of gold that was there. I don't know whether it is true or not. But suffice it to say that Ghana is a resource rich. It's known for gold, bauxite, manganese, and diamonds, and other industrial minerals. In fact, in about 10 years ago, the European Union provided some resources to government to do a broad airborne geophysical studies which actually came up with a number of other minerals which were previously unknown, I think about 28 of them. So the potential is quite great. But I think also that for Ghana, there has been a bit of exaggeration of how much the minerals really support the economy. They do support the economy, but how many minerals we have and how it affects the economy. For instance, if you look at the four major minerals that have been mined, that is bauxite, gold, manganese, and diamond, over the years at commercial rates, you see that gold constitute about 95% of the value. So the total value of the minerals is dominated by gold. So effectively, we are a mono-mineral economy, if you like, in terms of value. But that is not to say that gold is not a significant mineral there. In the last about 30 years or so, we have the mineral sector bringing in close to 17 billion in investment to Ghana and still the leader in attracting investment into the country. In terms of production, we know that for Africa, it is number two South Africa. And then it has also been oscillating between eight to 11 in terms of the world leg. I also am careful about exaggeration because sometimes we are number two to South Africa. But until recently, if you saw the gap between the amount of gold produced by South Africa and that produced by Ghana, it would sound like children who wrote exams, one got 87, the other got 28. 87 was first, 28 was second. And so you go out to say, mommy, I was second in class, you know, the gap is quite big. But of course, unfortunately, unfortunately, it's closing up slowly because South Africa's good production has been going down. So that's what it is. And in terms of revenue, you know, over the years, it's moving. In fact, if you look at the data from the 1980s, you realize how much the mineral sector has been contributing in terms of internal revenue to the government. And last year or so, we were about 16 percent of total revenue. In fact, it peaked in 2012, where the mining sector alone contributed about 27 percent of the internal revenue. It is still the leading contributor of internal revenue. Sometimes government even forget. And when they are talking about sectors that produce internal revenue, they even forget to mention mining, even though that's really the leading contributor. Employment is a bit controversial. People have been arguing that since Ghana moved from underground mining to open-pit mining, the number of people directly employed has reduced. This might be true technically. But if you look at the level of outsourcing that has gone on, you see an increase in employment in other sectors. That's an area. This afternoon, a colleague from Ghana did a presentation, and I drew his attention to that side, which probably may be hiding there, because you may have a sector that is actually working only for the mining sector. But if you're looking for the contributions, you will look elsewhere. So that's what I see a paper come inside. Let me just quickly go back to. So we've indicated the kind of contributions that the industry has been seeing, I mean, making in Ghana. This is just a graphic presentation of, you know, it's been growing up over the years, gold, diamonds, bauxite. You see that one has been going down because at the moment Ghana produces diamond only artisanally. 100% of the diamond producing Ghana is produced by artisanal miners. We don't have any formal, major formal diamond producers, but the others are, and you can see the figures keep going up. And I've just indicated the contributions. Since 2000, gold has dominated the merchandise sector, the revenue from the export sector, and the, but politicians still talk about cocoa, which is interesting if I'm not too long ago, our head of state also spoke about cocoa as a leading contributor of foreign exchange. But it is not the leading contributor is a mining sector by far yet, you know, it gets forgotten. So I've spoken about the internal revenue. Now what are some of the challenges of using regulation in Ghana? And this is where I am going to share some of my own personal experiences in this area. First of all, Ghana, at least since the 80s, since the introduction of structural adjustment program actually moved quite a lot of its policy from command and control to sort of new liberal system. So and part of it specifically for the mining sector was to come out with new regulations, new laws that sort to attract investors. And so and the effect is what we have seen. Now the challenges that we see now, first, and I'm just going to limit myself to about four of them, multiple regulations, the mining sector is the only sector that is quite heavily regulated in Ghana, and I believe in most part of Africa. In Ghana, there are at least six institutions that regulates the mining sector. And obviously, when you have multiple institutions regulating the sector, the tendency for conflict is quite obvious. And, you know, so and you see that I share one example, in fact, there had been serious fight between the Minerals Commission, which I heard it, and the EPA, the over the management, the regulation of tailings down. The Minerals Commission thinks that it's got the regulatory rights on tailings down. The EPA thinks it has to pronounce on the management of tailings down and that conflict has reached on for a very long time. This is just only one example, and there are several of them that, a couple of more of them that you find in the book. Now another problem is the capacity of regulators, and I think it is not peculiar to Ghana. I'm sure when you go to most of these, most of our, you know, countries, you would find similar challenges, and I share one example. In the Minerals Commission, just before I left, there were about 220 staff there out of that, less than 40% were technical, less than 40% of the staff was technical, and out of the ones that are technically oriented, about 60% were over 55 years. So they were gradually going to go out and see the numbers are not only small, the technical people are gradually going out, and there was a need for serious attention. Another problem is political interference. Ghana did very well by creating the Minerals Commission that is supposed to be constitutionally independent body in quotes, and which meant that to get a mining lease, you didn't have to go to the minister, like it happens in other countries, you don't have to go to the minister. Your application was for first come, first serve basis, and you have to go through this so-called autonomous body called the Minerals Commission. Or it finally goes to the minister, and in fact the law says that even when the minister had issues with that, and it is not approving, it has to refer the issue back to the commission. I think the idea was very, very good, but normally, and generally there have been much less political interference, but you see a lot of, well, over time these things happen. I'll give you a couple of examples. We were in the process, well, normally it happens when there's a change of government. The new government comes and it is suspicious of everybody, everybody in the, I'm sure it happens everywhere, and that they think that whatever action you are taking, you will take against them. I don't know where that came from, but then the minister announces, we have sat nine district officers, no process, no reference to the conditions of service, nothing. Or when you are in the process of recruiting, maybe it's a non-stop order recruitment. Why? Because they are supposed to be autonomous, and we pay ourselves, we are not even paid by. So these are some of the challenges, and of course the balancing act of dealing with the LSM, the large-scale mining companies, and the small-scale mining companies. We know the proliferation of small-scale mining companies there, and some of them also working in the area of, so these are the large-scale mining. Now these are just the concluding remarks. First of all, we think that the role of natural resource extraction in socioeconomic development and transformation of resource-endowed countries is not a myth anymore. I think it's something that we need to accept. I think once we accept the realities, we will try to understand the gamut of things around it. This means that we need to strengthen our regulatory institutions and build their capacities. Politicians should allow the professional institutions to work. I think we need to improve inter-institutional collaboration and partnership rather than keeping our heads, you know, sort of knocking our heads against each other. Then of course, we need regulation by assistance, not by insistence. In most jurisdictions, the regulator thinks that it's a police man around, and therefore all it has to do is to crack the whip. I think that thing is longer. We need to be more assisting in regulating than insisting, and of course, we must reduce bureaucracy through the wise use of technology. And finally, I was rather, you know, thrilled by what I saw in Australia, where they have a one-stop regulatory institution. So I have always suggested that to my government, that let's look at that. So you come in, you want something, and then what comes out is a final product. You don't have to travel here to another regulator, to another regulator, and before you have your project coming, it's already unimportant. So thank you very much.