China Willing to Expand Win-Win Cooperation With Ghana - Ambassador

Accra — The Chinese government is willing to expand win-win cooperation with Ghana, Chinese Ambassador to Ghana Sun Baohong said here on Friday.

Answering questions from the media after the donation of multi-million-dollar solar energy equipment to the government of Ghana, the ambassador explained that everything the two countries would do together shall be on win-win basis.

"We cherish our traditional friendship with Ghana. I think people should establish more trust than doubt among themselves if they really want to do big things in cooperation, that's why I say we need to look at the overall picture of China-Ghana cooperation," she said.

She described the recent visit to China by Ghanaian Vice President Mahamudu Bawumia as successful as it reiterated the importance Ghana attaches to its relations with China.

"I think the Vice President's visit to China is very successful and I think there are many layers of the success. You know this is a new government and the new government is very eager to deliver its promises to people and it is very important for the new government to establish the reliable relations with the major international partners," the ambassador added.

She noted that Bawumia's visit to China sent out a very strong signal that Ghana wants to cement the traditional friendship and wants to expand win-win cooperation with China.

Touching on the overall picture of China-Ghana cooperation, Sun expressed satisfaction that from around the value of 100 million U.S dollars in 2000 bilateral trade between the two countries has grown to 6.6 billion dollars in 2016.

On future investment cooperation, Sun said Chinese firms find Ghana's energy sector attractive and so would like to commit more investments.

"I think the incentives of the energy sector in Ghana are attracting Chinese investors. Chinese investors are looking at the possibility of investing more in setting up gas power plants, solar power plants and also want to explore the opportunities of setting up the wind and biomass power generation," said the ambassador.

Thomas Akabzaa, Chief Director of the Ministry of Energy, noted that the enabling environment created by the energy sector over the years has attracted investments for the various segments in the sector, including rural electrification.

A number of Chinese companies and Chinese financing that have resulted in the delivery of over 400 communities hooked to the national electricity grid in the Upper West Region and over 800 communities are being hooked to the national electricity grid through Chinese investment in the Northern Region, he disclosed.

Akabzaa added that discussions were ongoing for two proposed Chinese funded programs to deliver rural electrification to cover about 1,200 communities in Northern, Brong Ahafo, Ashanti, Eastern and Volta Regions.

Read Full Story