Ghana woos Bangladeshi investors

LAGOS, June 22 -- Ghana's President John Kufuor on Wednesday urged entrepreneurs in Bangladesh and Ghana to promote joint ventures in jute production for the tiny west African nation's cocoa industry.

According to the Ghana News Agency, Kufuor said Ghana's economydepended mostly on the cocoa industry, which imported most of the jute bags from Bangladesh for cocoa production.

Kufuor, who made the call when Syeed Ahmed, Bangladesh High Commissioner in Ghana based in Nairobi, Kenya, presented his letters of credence to him, said he believed that such a venture would boost the production of jute bags as well as cocoa.

Ghana, the world's second largest cocoa producer after Cote d'Ivoire, had a record cocoa output of 734,699 tons in the 2003-2004season which fetched the country 1.156 billion US dollars, according to the Ghana Cocoa Board.

Ahmed said Ghana could not only benefit from the production of jute bags but other sectors as well such as the textile industry through the establishment of a garment factory in Ghana under the African growth and opportunities act.

Ghana could become the nerve center for Bangladesh manufacturedgoods in the west African sub-region, he added