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President John Dramani Mahama has reassured that Ghana will bounce back from its present economic challenges, just as it emerged from even more challenging periods in the past. There is however the need for building national consensus in formulating a national development roadmap to guide the attainment and sustenance of building a more vibrant economy. �Fellow citizens, your presence here today, will enable us to work together towards the creation of such a map,� he told participants at the ongoing National Economic Forum at Akosombo, in the Eastern Region. The opposition New Patriotic Party is boycotting the four-day forum on the grounds of late invitation and hidden agenda by the government. While he emphasised that �This is the time for us to come together. It�s the time for us to work together,� he said the government believed it was time to create a non-partisan platform � �a specific space within which the people of Ghana can address� government and address each other on the direction of economic policy. We are better off dialoguing President Mahama underscored the relevance of the forum, tracing its antecedents in 1997 and 2001 by the then respective National Democratic Congress and NPP governments, saying while those fora did not yield miraculous unanimity in approaches to dealing with the prevailing economic challenges, it proved a useful tool in planning and policy making, allowing a broad spectrum of expertise to be brought to bear on economic policy formulation. "Those forums afforded us the opportunity to hear other voices. Those forums promoted understanding, and though we did not miraculously find unanimity, we were able to forge a consensus behind critical economic policies such as the HIPIC Initiative and Poverty Reduction and Growth Strategies, PRGS of the past decade." While he emphasised that �This is the time for us to come together. It�s the time for us to work together,� he said the government believed it was time to create a non-partisan platform � �a specific space within which the people of Ghana can address� government and address each other on the direction of economic policy. In apparent reference to the boycott of the forum by the NPP, President Mahama cautioned that cynicism is one of the most dangerous conditions the country should not allow to exist, saying we need to speak in order to be heard and that we cannot remain silent on issues that affect the nation. �We need to talk with one another rather than at each other, and we need to listen to be thoughtful in our consideration.� He said while we may differ in our views, and even where we agree on ideas, we may differ in approach, what binds us all is the intention to build a better nation. �We will, of course, have divergent views. And even if we agree on ideas, we may differ in our opinions on how to implement them. But what we do share, what we will always have as our common ground is our intention- we all want to see Ghana succeed and to that end, we all want to find a solution that is practical, a solution that is sustainable. �It is in this spirit of inclusiveness that we have invited you here today, and that you have also graciously accepted. The circumstances under which this forum is being held make it markedly different than the previous two economic forums.�