Trade Minister Visits Free Zone

Mr Allan Kyeremanteng, Minister of Trade and Industries on Wednesday led a visiting two-man United States Trade delegation to tour the textiles and garment village in the Free Zone enclave at Tema to enable the visitors to explore the possibilities of establishing industries in Ghana.

The visit is under the President's Special Initiative in promoting the garments and textiles industries under the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA). It is also to afford the delegation the opportunity to appraise the infrastructure development at the Free Zone village.

Mr. Kyeremanteng told the GNA that the government wanted to encourage potential foreign investors to set up garment and textile manufacturing companies that would take advantage of the AGOA initiative and produce for the U.S market. He said the proximity of the Ghanaian market to both the U.S and Europe was favourable to the exporting companies of textiles and garments.

They visited PRINTEX Company Limited, manufacturers of wax prints and Agridot Company Limited, a garment factory in Accra. The leader of the U.S Business delegation, Ms. Rosa M. Whitaker said their visit was to facilitate trade relations between the US and Ghana. She said the delegation examine means of fulfilling the dream of President Kufuor of creating an export led economy.

Ms Whitaker said the delegation had already placed an order for 200,000 pairs of pants for a Ghanaian company to supply under AGOA to the U. S market.

The delegation is also looking at investing in other areas such as power production, chocolate and seafoods manufacturing. She said the prevalence of peace, stability and skilled labour force in Ghana were factors that made it ideal to invest in the country.