China urged to build capacity of Ghanaians

Accra, Dec. 5, GNA - Mr Stephen Asamoah-Boateng, Minister of Tourism and Diasporan Relations, on Wednesday urged China to transfer some of its technology to Ghanaians as a sign of good relationship between the two countries.

"Instead of us going to China to buy made in China goods, we want your government to assist in building the capacity of our people to enable them to manufacture some of our domestic goods," he told the Ambassador of China, Mr Yu Wenzhe who paid a courtesy call on him. He said the friendship between the two countries dated back to the 1950s and this was the time for China to establish the friendship by going beyond sharing of ideas to direct investment in the area of infrastructure such as hotels and chalets at tourism sites. The Minister said currently, man-made tourism was catching up and what was left to be done was to modify it and add more value to suit the taste of the tourists and urged China to partner the Ministry to achieve that aim.

Mr Asamoah-Boateng thanked the Chinese government for funding the Bui Dam project, which, he said, would be of great help to the country. "We have over-depended on the Akosombo Dam and getting another one to support it would be good for our people."

Mr. Wenzhe said he was happy to see that the friendship between the two had deepened to cover new areas such as promotion of Information Communication Technology, tourism and industry in both countries. He said there was more work to be done to tap the numerous potentials in the area of education, tourism and culture and called for more cooperation between the two to explore other ways to strengthen those areas.

Mr Wenzhe announced that his government was pursuing a policy on political, economic and mutual respect and to make that policy real, it had established the China/Africa Investment Fund with an initial seed capital of one billion dollars to support Chinese entrepreneurs who would like to invest in Africa.

He said plans were underway to increase the seed capital to five billion dollars to further promote the good relations between China and Africa.

Mr. Kofi Osei-Ameyaw, Deputy Minister of Tourism and Diasporan Relations, called for reciprocal arrangements in terms of application of tourists' visas to open up the tourist industries of the two countries. He also called on China to partner the Ministry to organise satellite cities for both Ghana and Africans in the Diaspora who wish to resettle in Ghana.

Mr Osei-Ameyaw said the Ministry was discussing with other stakeholders to acquire serviced plots of land for Africans in the Diaspora.

He said the project, which would be public/private/Diasporan partnership, was expected to create more jobs for the citizenry and urged worthy Ghanaian investors both at home and abroad to invest in it.