Ghana, ready for Russian business community - Vice President

Accra, Aug 4, GNA - Vice President John Dramani Mahama, on Wednesday called for closer collaboration between Ghanaian and Russian Business communities to come out with beneficial programmes for both countries.

He said Ghana was lacking behind in terms of infrastructural development and it would, therefore, be a blessing if the Russian businesses would support their Ghanaian counterparts to develop ports, railways, airports and the agricultural and educational sectors.

Vice President Mahama made this call when a delegation of businessmen from Russia and Belarus called on him at the Castle, Osu, to outline areas of cooperation and investments in the country.

The delegation, which expressed interest in investing One billion dollars in the Ghanaian economy, mentioned oil and gas exploitation, fertilizer production, security and safety services, production and assembling of tractors and other automobiles as areas they were interested in.

The Vice President said apart from partnership at governmental level, there was the need for collaboration between the private sectors of the two countries, which could create more jobs for the youth and facilitate national development.

"Business among our countries will be more sustainable only if we engage ourselves at the private sector levels where the jobs will also engage so many Ghanaians and other business personalities."

Vice President Mahama expressed satisfaction that business discussions had began at the ministerial and individual levels and called on the delegation to identify their areas of interest, so that their Ghanaian counterparts would take it up from those areas.

Mr Tkachuk Anatoly, leader of the delegation, traced the relationship between Ghana and Russia to the era of the cold war and exchange programmes where Ghanaians were trained in various sectors.

He said "we shall be ready to invest in the areas of trade, industry and agricultural."

Mr Anatoly said that the group was interested in establishing tractor and fertilizer industries in Ghana and asked government to support it achieve its objectives.