President Kufuor In Jamaica

12.07.2005 -- President John Agyekum Kufuor arrived in Kingston, Jamaica yesterday for a three-day working visit.

President Kufuor was greeted on arrival by Jamaica's Minister of Development, Dr Paul Robertson, at the Norman Manley International Airport a little before 2:00 pm, accompanied by a delegation which included the Minister of Foreign Affairs Nana Akufo Addo and Minister of Trade and Industry Alan Kyerematu.

He then left for the Jamaica Pegasus Hotel in Kingston.

Jamaican Prime Minister P J Patterson hosted the president yesterday evening at a private dinner at Jamaica House.

Today, President Kufuor will pay a courtesy call on Governor-General Sir Howard Cooke, while Leader of the Opposition Bruce Golding will pay the president a courtesy call in the afternoon at the Pegasus Hotel.

The President is today scheduled to tour the JAMALCO facilities at Halse Hall, Clarendon, where he will attend a luncheon hosted by JAMALCO.

On Wednesday morning, the president will attend a breakfast meeting hosted by Transport Minister Robert Pickersgill, the chairman of the ruling People's National Party (PNP).

This will be followed by bilateral talks between President Kufuor and Prime Minister Patterson, which will be followed by a press conference.
President Kufuor's visit to the island comes to a close on Wednesday afternoon.

IN an interview with The Gleaner, Ghanaian Foreign Minister Nana Akufo-Addo said his country had just signed an agreement with aluminium producer Alcoa, and wanted to learn more by inspecting their Jamaican operations.

The visit, he said, would also renew historical ties between Jamaica and Ghana where some Jamaicans, including the Marley family, have now settled. Ghana, he added, was also looking to promote its tourist industry and could learn from what he called Jamaica's "developed industry".

In power since 2000, Mr. Kufuor's administration prioritised economic stability, but Ghana simultaneously said Mr. Akufo-Addo, needs to become a producer of finished goods rather than raw goods.

"We have substantial bauxite reserves and it has been a great expectation of our people for these to be fully exploited so that we would have an integrated bauxite alumina industry," he said.
Referencing Ghana and Jamaica, Mr. Akufo-Addo stressed developing countries must learn to live within their economic limits. "In our parts of the world we have an unnatural situation where most borrowing goes to the government which is why interest rates are so high and business starved of investment ... We have had to rationalise economic activity and withdraw government from direct economic activity," he said.
The Ghanaian delegation will visit Alcoa's Jamalco alumina plant in Halse Hall, Clarendon.