Ghana signs an assistance agreement with China

Ghana has signed an Assistance Agreement with the People’s Republic of China after the fourth Session of the Joint Commission on Economic, Trade and Technical Cooperation.

The Cooperation, a medium term development assistance agreement is expected to be signed every four years between Ghana and China to guide the cooperation arrangements over the period.

The discussions on the fourth Session were on bilateral trade, investment, financing, development assistance cooperation with regards to grants and concessional loan financing, regional aviation cooperation and human resource training.

Mr Ken Ofori-Atta, the Minister for Finance, at the signing ceremony said the agreement would change the relationship between the two countries.

He said significant discussions were held on infrastructure, industrialization, and defence.

He said with the agreement the two countries were looking at a new paradigm to encourage the private sector to be involved in the development of the economy.

He said the Chinese government has extended an invitation to the Ghanaian delegations to participate in China International Import Exposition from 2018 and other trade promotion activities, advertise products like Cocoa, Cashew, Starch and Shea-butter on the Chinese market to encourage further imports from Ghana by Chinese enterprises.

Mr Qian Keming, the Vice Minister for Commerce of China, said his team was impressed with commitment and collaboration received from the Ghanaian team on the agreement.

He said the two countries agreed on various issues of collaboration that would bring development to its citizenry.

“We are fulfilled that the collaboration between the two countries is high on the agenda for the continuous development of their economies,” he added.

In the area of bilateral trade, the two countries were satisfied with the progress made in recent years, they, however, noted the great potential due to the complementary economic structures of the two countries.

They also made a commitment to support trade and investment liberalization and facilitation, resist protectionism.

On investment cooperation, the parties have realized that investment is key area in the next stage of the economic cooperation and the need to explore potential to deepen investment cooperation. One noted area was for the Chinese enterprises to take part in the ‘One District, One Factory’ project to speed up Ghana’s national industrialization.

For the financing cooperation, the Chinese government is willing to provide over the medium term, the necessary financial support in the following sectors including electricity, transportation, telecommunication, municipal construction, and education.

The two sides emphasized the importance to strengthen human resource cooperation through exchange programmes and participation and various seminars and training courses in China.