Ghana Invites Chinese Investors

By Yaw Boadu Ayeboafoh

Shanghai — Ghana has extended an invitation to Chinese investors and entrepreneurs to invest in the country as a worthy destination for investment.

The invitation was made by the Deputy Minister of Trade and Industry, Carlos Ahenkorah at a Business and Investment Forum on the sidelines at the China International Import Exposition at Shanghai, China on Tuesday.

He said the government is committed to provide the needed environment to attract investment that would help develop the country on a sustainable basis while providing investors good returns on their investment.

Mr Ahenkorah said democratic stability and good governance had been strengthened and the country had been ranked as the most environmentally investment friendly in West Africa.

The Deputy Minister assured potential investors that any production base in Ghana would have access to numerous regions where the country had signed trade agreements such as the African Growth and Opportunity (AGOA), the Economic Partnership Agreement with the European Union, the African Continental Free Trade Area as well as the Economic Community of West Africa States (ECOWAS) market.

Mr Ahenkorah enumerated a number of programmes being pursued by the government to make the country economically independent, improvements in small and medium enterprises, manufacturing of machine tools and parts, downstream oil and gas, as some of the potential areas for investment.

The Ghana Export Promotions Authority, Ghana Investment Promotion, Ghana Free Zones Board as well as the Ghana COCOBOD made presentations about their roles in facilitating investment as well as the areas of investment that needed urgent attention.

The Deputy Chief Executive of COCOBOD, Emmanuel A. Opoku explained that there is a vast demand for investment in cocoa processing and stated that the Chinese government is helping Ghana to set up a cocoa processing factory to process 40,000 tonnes of cocoa and that required USD 40 million which could be recouped in seven years with a 19 per cent return on investment.

During question time, a number of Chinese investors wanted to know the security of their investments against either the change of government or xenophobia attacks such as what have been happening in South Africa and Zimbabwe.

Mr Ahenkorah gave them the assurance that no genuine investor in Ghana would suffer any arbitrary seizure due to change of government and that the judiciary was independent and strong in the administration of justice and explained that the Ghanaians are open to foreign investors and are not predisposed to xenophobia.

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