Minister for Business Development, Dr. Ibrahim Mohammed Awal has called on Chinese investors to partner Ghanaian businesses to make the country a manufacturing hub in West Africa.

Addressing investors at the 3rd edition of the China Trade Week Ghana, the Minister appealed to companies and businesses that are mainly from China to take advantage of Ghana’s economic stability and democracy over the years.

According to him, Ghana is the most stable economy in the sub-region and it would be in China’s interest to invest and cooperate with Ghanaian businesses to make Ghana a manufacturing hub in West Africa.

Touting the Akufo-Addo-led administration’s achievements since they assumed office, Dr. Mohammed Awal highlighted five major points government is focusing on to make Ghana an industrialised country.

According to the Business Development Minister, “Ghana intends to make industrialisation one of the key players of our economic development. There are five of them; industrialisation, agriculture, infrastructure, human resource development and entrepreneurship but agriculture, industrialisation stands out very well”.

Ghana was recently ranked the 7th trading partner of China in Africa and this is because of the trade deals between both countries which have increased immensely over the years making Ghana move up to that position among African countries.

The partnership between these two countries brought significant gains as Ghana-China trade volumes registered over $6 billion in 2017 up by 11.69 percent. Also in terms of export and import between the two countries, China’s export to Ghana was $4.8bn and import from Ghana was at about $1.8bn making Ghana stand out among African countries with these figures.

Due to that, the Business Development Minister said he is pleased Ghana is now the 7th but would be glad if Ghana became the first country that trades with China in Africa.

According to him, his government is committed to moving the economy from being factor driven to one that is efficient driven and that would be fruitful if both countries cooperate.

“I’m happy Mr. Ambassador Ghana is about the 7th trading partner in Africa. I want this to shift to make Ghana the first country that China trades within Africa. As government we are very much committed. We have to move from a factor driven economy to efficient driven economy. We cannot continue to export only our raw materials to the world. It will not help us; we want to add value that is why Ghana and China should corporate together”, he said.

“China is reputed for being very good reputation in terms of manufacturing. I want to urge Chinese businesses to partner the Ghanaian counterparts to help make Ghana the hub of manufacturing in West Africa. It is very important for us. The discipline, the innovation that China has had over the years to make your industries good, let us have that as partnership so that Ghana can be a manufacturing hub for West Africa. If you make Ghana the hub of manufacturing in West Africa, you’re going to make Chinese businesses also very profitable. Ghanaian businesses must cooperate with Chinese businesses to start your manufacturing businesses from Ghana and spread across”, he added.

Wooing the investors and explaining his reasons for that, the Minister said “Ghana is very democratic, the most stable economy in this sub region. The macroeconomic fundamentals are very good in Ghana. Inflation that the worst number of business is now in a single digit from 16 percent in 2016 to 9.3 percent now. We have renewed the banking license of many of them, we have sanitised the banking system as it’s doing very well. Operations at the port have been streamlined and are very efficient and more importantly we have a president who is not only making sure that democracy works, he’s fought to make sure that life of the ordinary Ghanaian people are improved. These are four main reasons why you need to make Ghana the hub of manufacturing and Chinese businesses will certainly benefit from it”.

We strongly support government’s IDIF initiative – Chinese Ambassador

Chinese Ambassador to Ghana, Shi Ting Wang also speaking at the event said the Chinese government is strongly behind government’s One District, One Factory initiative and will support it to ensure more factories are built in the country.

According to him, China through the One District, One Factory policy has built three ceramic factories in Ghana and intends to do more to ensure Akufo-Addo’s industrialisation agenda is achieved.

The Ambassador said through the opening of these factories, Ghana now exports more to other countries than it used to import especially in the ceramic sector.

“Currently we have three ceramics factories in Ghana. Because of those newly setup factories, Ghana you have changed; you changed from a country which imports ceramics from China. Now you have become a country that exports ceramics to the regional countries”, he said.

He further revealed that due to China’s investment in the country, prices have reduced drastically to 30 percent which is helping businesses now which must be celebrated.

Also, he said China is committed to continuing the trade relations both countries enjoy and will partner in all aspects to improve the economic stability of the country.