Ghana Technology Park: Implementation Phase

At the 1st United Nations Forum on Science & Technology Parks in Beijing, China in the summer of 2002, the United Nations put together a special task force to help developing countries improve their economies using science and technology parks. Last fall, the UN invited Dr. Walter Alhassan and Yaw Owusu to speak at the 2nd UN Forum on Science & Technology Parks, held on November 30-December 3, 2003 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (READ).

The mission of the UN Task Force, starting with the Philadelphia summit, was to select an African country to establish a technology incubator and research hub. Walter Alhassan, the former Director General of the Ghana Council on Scientific and Industrial Research, discussed the government’s initiative on technology and industrial complex, while GCG Founder and Chief Executive Yaw Owusu presented the Ghana Technology Park proposal to provide incubation and acceleration for start-up firms and to promote the small but growing outsourcing industry in Ghana. The Ghanaians impressed the UN Task Force and strengthened Ghana’s candidacy for the first UN-financed technology center in Africa. In the months following the international gathering in Pennsylvania, Alhassan and Owusu successfully lobbied the UN to choose Ghana for the pilot project.

Gregg Pascal Zachary, former Wall Street Journal staff writer and technical advisor to the Ghana Tech Park team, encouraged GCG to initiate a partnership arrangement with the Ghana Government on the park proposal. The United Nations Task Force is scheduled to visit Ghana with GCG executives on March 2-9, 2004 to meet government representatives and business leaders to discuss the scope of the project, choosing a location and setting up the initial groundwork.