Ghana and Japan exchanged notes for two grants agreements totalling 74 billion cedis for food aid and the construction of small and medium-scale bridges.
Fifty-eight billion cedis of the amount will be used to construct 34 bridges in the Volta, Eastern, Ashanti, Brong-Ahafo, Northern and Upper West Regions, where the bulk of the nation's food is produced. The remaining 16 billion cedis will cover the provision of 10,000 metric tons of rice in food aid.
The funds will be disbursed over a three-and- half- year period, effective from the time of the agreement until March 2004.
Foreign Minister Hackman Owusu-Agyemang signed for Ghana while the Japanese Ambassador Mr Hiromu Nitta signed for his country.
Mr Owusu-Agyemang said the government attaches great importance to road transportation in view of its dominant role in the economy. About 94 per cent of goods and 97 per cent of passengers use road transport.
He said it is in this connection that government committed a substantial amount in this year's budget to the development of urban and trunk roads.
This is to open up the rural areas so that agricultural produce can be easily brought to the urban centres and ports for consumption and export, he said.
"We are also focusing on the maintenance and rehabilitation of the road network and infrastructure, especially in the rural areas."
Mr Owusu-Agyemang said Ghana's efforts to ensure self-sufficiency in food is being hampered by dependence on rain-fed agriculture and natural disasters like bush fires, floods, pests and diseases.
He expressed the hope that the food aid would help bridge the gap between the shortfall in local production and consumption levels and to regulate prices.
Mr Owusu-Agyemang reiterated government's commitment to its policy to increase rice production to halve the huge foreign exchange spent on its importation and create jobs.
He said the allocation will not in any way dampen the spirit to increase local rice production since cereal production in the country has not kept up with population growth.
The Minister said the agreements would also end the unnecessary speculations of sceptics about Japanese assistance to the country since government's decision to take advantage of the HIPC initiative.
Mr Nitta said though much progress has been made in the development of urban and trunk roads, the improvement of feeder roads in rural areas is still far behind.
"Transport bottlenecks at bridge sites are not only hampering sound economic activities, but also affecting access to the social facilities such as schools, hospitals.... Thus rural people cannot satisfactorily receive basic social services," he said.
He said the Japanese government's assistance is to help remove these bottlenecks.
Mr Nitta said technical assistance will be provided to Ghanaians as "on-the-job training" in the project implementation process.
"I sincerely hope that Ghanaian engineers will collaborate with the Japanese engineers in the construction of the bridges and will be able to acquire more know-how and expertise in bridge construction," he added.
Ambassador Nitta said he was happy that the Ministry of Agriculture has launched a special rice production initiative to reduce rice imports by 50 per cent in the next three years.
"I believe this initiative will attract domestic rice farmers and will effectively contribute to the increase of rice production in Ghana," he said.
He assured the government that Japan would continue to provide grants and technical assistance despite its decision to join HIPC, adding that the agreements clearly demonstrate that Japan will continue to assist Ghana.
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