Vice President receives Chinese Minister

Accra, May 7, GNA - Vice President John Dramani Mahama has called for a deepening in Ghana/China relations to overcome the worldwide financial meltdown leading to serious dislocations in the economies of countries including Ghana.

He said with the two countries pursuing similar political and economic ideologies, there was need for them to synergise their relations to offset the burden imposed on them as a result of the financial crisis to minimise the impact on the people.

Vice President Mahama said this when he received a high powered Chinese delegation led by Dr Wang Jiarui, Minister of the International Department of the Communist Party of China (CPC) at the Castle, Osu, on Thursday.

Dr Wang, who is also a member of the Central Committee of the CPC, is touring some African countries including Ghana, Kenya, Cape Verde and Eritrea to deepen Sino/Africa relations within the context of south-south cooperation.

In addition to holding discussions at the governmental level, Dr Wang is also meeting with the leadership of the National Democratic Congress as part of the CPC's collaboration with the ruling party through the aegis of the International Socialist Forum. Bilateral relations between African countries and China has expanded rapidly in recent times, as China, using her clout as an emerging economic powerhouse, has poured huge resources into those countries to help shore up their flagging finances.

The cooperation has led to mutual trade volume of $73.3 billion in 2007 and $53.1 billion in the first quarter of 2008, indicating an annual growth rate of 30 per cent since 2000, a positive development Vice President Mahama said gave Ghana, and other African countries, a track which should be harnessed for the mutual benefit of all parties. Vice President Mahama said while the global financial crisis imposed a lot of challenges for developing countries, it, nonetheless, also offered a number of opportunities which could be exploited to clean up the mess in the operations of the global financial system. He said the crisis offered an opportunity to deal with the situation whereby a small clique of financial captains engage in unbridled and regulated financial deals that accrued to them huge wealth, while the majority of the people were left out. Vice President Mahama appealed to the CPC to help in building the grassroots structures of the NDC since it was through the medium of active party organization that electoral victories could be won. Vice President Mahama was grateful to the Chinese government for her remarkable investment in the Ghanaian economy, the recent being the construction of the Bui Hydro Power Plant.

Dr Wang commended the Ghanaian government for her achievements in the areas of human development and promised further cooperation to enhance the relations between the two countries. The Chinese Minister urged Ghana to continue along the lines of people-centred development, assuring that China would continue to be a significant partner in that agenda to bring about social and economic transformation in the lives of the people.

Touching on the global financial crisis, Dr Wang said it would require the collaboration of the two countries to overcome it. A Vice Chairman of the NDC, Mr Huudu Yahya, who led the NDC delegation, called for an urgent meeting between the CPC and the NDC to discuss the financial crisis and ways to be adopted to minimise its impact on the economies of the two countries.

At the meeting were Mr Yu Wenzhe, the Chinese Ambassador, Mr Newman Mantey, Chief of Staff, Mr Johnson Asiedu-Nketia, General Secretary of the NDC, Mr Alban Bagbin, Majority Leader and Mr Ludwig Hlodze, Deputy Youth Organizer of the party.