Bawumia commissions 'Ghana-China Friendship Road'

Vice President Dr Mahamudu Bawumia on Tuesday commissioned a four-million-dollar 4.0-kilometre concrete road dubbed “Ghana-China Friendship Road” at Kpone in the Kpone-Katamanso Municipality.

It was constructed by the Sunon-Asogli Power Plant Limited, a Chinese majority shareholding power company, in collaboration with the Kpone-Katamanso Municipal Assembly.

At the commissioning ceremony at Kpone witnessed by the Chinese Ambassador to Ghana, Mr Shi Ting Wang, Vice President Bawumia commended China for continuing to be an important development partner of Ghana.

He said Chinese companies in recent years were setting up companies in Ghana to provide employment opportunities to Ghanaians, in order to add value to the country’s natural resources in line with the President’s vision of building a “Ghana Beyond Aid”.

“The construction of this 4.0km concrete road is a demonstration of the corporate social responsibility role for the benefits of communities Chinese companies operate in,” Dr Bawumia said.

The Vice President expressed appreciation to Sunon-Asogli Power Plant Limited and their overseas shareholders, Shenzhen Energy Group Limited and the China African Development Fund, and the Chinese Government for the kind gesture.

Ghana witnessed its first concrete road 55 years ago in 1965, which is a 19-kilometre double lane road, popularly called “Accra-Tema Motorway” linking the industrial city of Tema to the national capital, Accra.

The Vice President also lauded the Company for constructing the first Astro Turf football pitch in the Kpone-Katamanso municipality to encourage sporting activities among the youth.

He acknowledged the durability of concrete roads with a life span of about 40 years, hence the government’s decision to pilot a 5.4km concrete road at Tema Steel Works and DVLA road two years ago and when completed would boost movement in the vicinity.

He said President Akufo-Addo declared this year as the “Year of Roads” intended to boost the movement of people and goods and promote public safety.

Dr Bawumia took the opportunity to outline some roads in the municipality selected for construction including; Kpone Town roads, Community 22 to Atadeka roads, Afariwa Link road, Macbaron-Frenchman road, Kakasunanka number 1 and 2 roads and Gbetsile to Appolonia road.

He was of the conviction that the completion of the aforementioned roads would minimise the ordeal commuters to go through daily and improve accessibility in the municipality.

Vice President Bawumia reiterated government’s support to the Good people of China as they instituted tough and comprehensive measures to manage the Coronavirus, saying,” Clearly, China is not only fighting for itself, but also for the rest of the world because viruses know no boundaries”.

Dr Bawumia signed on a board to symbolically signified Ghana’s strong support to China to end the COVID-19 outbreak.