Ghana Demand Equal Trade

The President, Mr John Agyekum Kufour, has expressed the need for opportunities among trade partners to ensure fairness.

He said that the government was ready to engage in trade relations with any country or group of people who would not exploit the nation but work for the mutual benefit of both. The President said this in Accra when a five-member delegation from General Electric (GE), a US-based company, paid a courtesy call on him at the Castle.

The company, the largest in the United States of America in terms of capitalization, is in the country to explore possible areas of co-operation and development. President Kufour said it is the priority of the government to develop the country’s infrastructural and energy sectors and urged the group to pay attention to those areas. He said the various ministries and departments are ready to listen to them and to brief them on the opportunities available in the country. President Kufuor said that it was a welcome idea that the delegation was visiting the country at a time the government had focused its attention on the energy and road sectors.

We are willing to build our roads, develop the energy and the communications sectors and its is only appropriate that you have come at this time,” he said. He said that most of the areas are new and needed to be explored but pointed out that such exploration would only be accepted if it would be done in partnership with the government. That, he said, would ensure fairness and check the situation where investors took undue advantage of the system.

Responding, Dr Parfait Jean-Marie Likibi, President of GE Africa, who led the delegation, said the company was a global one which had come to Ghana to explore areas where it could be of help to the country. While in the country the GE delegation would meet the Ministers of Road and Transport, Energy and Communications and Technology among others to discuss ways of forming partnership with them to develop these sectors. According to Dr. Likibi, a bigger delegation would visit Ghana soon to begin the actual work.

In his contribution, Mr. Albert Kan-Dapaah, Minister of Energy, urged the delegation to assist the country to improve on its power generation capacity. This he said could be done by assisting the Aboadze Thermal Plant and the expansion of the Akosombo Dam.

Dr Kofi Konadu Apraku, Minister of Trade and Industry, also urged the GE Corporation to assist the country to assemble electrical appliances. He said it is through such assistance that the economy of Ghana would be restored to its former glorious station. Mr. Kwamina Bartels, Minister of Private Sector Development, also told the delegation that the country could boast of a vibrant private sector devoid of unnecessary government interference and urged them to take advantage of that.