US companies ready to invest in Ghana - Ambassador

Mr. Gene A. Cretz, United States (US) Ambassador to Ghana, on Tuesday said that companies from his country are ready to invest in Ghana to facilitate collaborative assistance.

He mentioned the General Electric, which had signed a deal with the Ghana Water Company Limited to provide technology and equipment for a water project in Ghana. Mr. Cretz announced these during a courtesy call on Mrs. Dzifa Attivor, Minister of Transport, in Accra, to strengthen the cordial relations between the Ministry and the US Embassy for the mutual benefit of the two countries.

The project is to upgrade and rehabilitate the national water system in Ghana to improve performance and product quality. Mr. Cretz said the rehabilitation of the Western Railway line was also a priority project aimed at reviving railway services.

He said the U.S. Trade and Development Agency had supported the Ghana Civil Aviation Authority to produce design documents for works on the Kotoka International Airport, and appealed to the Ministry to consider companies from the US to work on the project. Mr. Cretz said the project would help to increase air traffic and improve the capacity of the airport and enhance aviation safety.

He said the US and Ghana were working together to advance an airport development project that would improve air travel in West Africa. Mr. Cretz said the US Government had also assisted the National Marine Police Training Academy at Anyinase in the Western Region, with transport to help protect Ghana’s maritime and environmental laws, targeting illicit activities at sea, such as piracy, illegal arms movement, narcotics and human trafficking.

He said the US was prepared to work with Ghana to ensure that its borders are protected. Mr. Cretz said: “Our cooperation with the Transport Ministry is a very big agenda, and interested US companies are coming to expand the sector as well as the Western Railway line”. Mrs. Attivor commended the US Government for the numerous assistance it provided Ghana to improve various sectors of the economy.

She mentioned the US Peace Corps’ support for the study of Science and Mathematics at educational institutions, especially in rural schools.On the railway line project, Mrs. Attivor said Ghana had its development plans, and asked development partners to work according to those plans.

She said it has come to the notice of the Ministry that the US partners interested in the railway line project had its own designs and plans different from that of the Ghana. According to Mrs. Attivor, while the Ghana Government wanted a “New Standard Gauge line” constructed to replace the rehabilitated line, the partners were insisting on rehabilitating the existing railway line.

She said the option of the partners was not viable to government, explaining that it was interested in having the railway line constructed to meet international standards.Mrs. Attivor asked Mr. Cretz to persuade the partners to revive their project.