Investment promotion Centre releases report

Accra, April 27, GNA - A Ghana Investment Promotion Centre Report has shown that the share of jointly owned projects between Ghanaians and their foreign counterparts are on the decline.

The share has consistently dwindled from about 70 per cent in 1994 to 39 per cent in 2006, while on the other hand wholly foreign-owned projects have seen a steady increase in registered projects from 30 per cent to 61 per cent over the same period.

These were contained in the centre's fourth quarter Report for 2006 made available to the Ghana News Agency.

Between September 1994 and December 2006, the Centre registered 2,178 projects.

Out of the number, manufacturing activities account for 28.5 per cent as against 27.8 per cent by the service sector. General trading activities and tourism-related projects form 11.9 per cent and 11.1 per cent respectively.

Building and construction activities take 7.9 per cent, agricultural projects also account for seven per cent and export and trading concerns take 5.7 per cent.

The report put total investment by all these projects at 4,645.4 million dollars, a significant proportion of which was taken up by manufacturing projects, which accounted for 58.1 per cent as against 25.4 per cent by the services sector.

The remaining 17 per cent of the declared investment cost is taken up by other five sectors.

The report also showed that the Foreign Direct Investment content in the projects had remained high in excess of 75 per cent over the years, which could be an indication of investor confidence in the economy.

Similarly, the report said projects registered under the law since it was promulgated some twelve years ago had generally shown an increasing trend despite taking a dip between 1998 and 2002. Service activities and manufacturing projects have dominated the numbers with the building and construction sector coming in a distant third.

A significant observation the report notes in the trend analysis is that core agricultural activities had over the years not registered the desired numbers and is still on the decline, falling from 15 in 2001 to six projects in 2006. 27 April 07