Other African Countries want Ghana's Housing Project - Korean Minister

Accra, June 25, GNA - Many African countries have approached South Korea for projects similar to the STX 200,000 housing units in Ghana, Mr Park Young June, Vice Minister at the Office of the Prime Minister, said on Friday.

Mr Park, who was on a working visit to the Ministry of Water Resourc es, Works and Housing, said during the recent World Economic Forum in Davos m any African countries approached Korea for the replication of the 200,000 STX

Ghana Housing Project in their countries.

He said Korea was not worried about the debate in the media concernin g the Project because there would always be sceptics on such big projects a nd cited an instance in Korea, where many people objected to the building a superhighway but when their Government persisted, it turned out to be a major booster in the economic development of that country. He said the Korean Government was solidly behind the Project, adding that STX intended to reinvest in Ghana any profit it might make in pursua nce of Ghana-Korea holistic cooperation.

Responding, Mr Alban S. Bagbin, Minister of Water Resources, Works a nd Housing, said the Government was committed to the Project and was doing everything to bring it on-stream by August after taking time to delve dee p into the background of STX Korea Limited and finding them to be credible. He said what the Government was expected to do was to guarantee the

loan to be contracted by STX Ghana to undertake the Project, adding that the Cabinet had submitted a new memorandum to Parliament for consideration following the withdrawal an earlier one.

He said the Government had not taken any decision on how to use the anticipated oil revenue and could, therefore, not have committed it to any cause yet.

Mr Bagbin said the delay in the commencement of the Project was to enable the Government to do due diligence so that it would be a "win-win" situation, adding that two committees, with membership made up of all stakeholders including Ghana Real Estate Developers Association (GREDA) h ave been formed,.

On the 60,000 Ghana Cedis price tag for a unit of the houses, Mr Bag bin said no price has been fixed yet explaining that since the houses would not be of the same type they would definitely not have the same price. He said prices of houses are determined by various factors, includi ng the availability of infrastructure; location and types of materials used and the provision of additional facilities like schools; clinics; shopping ma lls and recreational centres among other things.

Mr Bagbin said the objective of the Project was to provide houses f or all sections of the Ghanaian community including Public Servants.