Ghanaian official calls for more Chinese investment in manufacturing

ACCRA - A senior Ghanaian official on Wednesday urged Chinese investors to turn towards Ghana's manufacturing sector with their investments, state-run Ghana News Agency (GNA) reported.

Ekwow Spio Garbrah, Minister for Trade and Industry called on Chinese investors to invest into priority areas especially the agro-processing and light manufacturing sectors, to boost the growth of the Ghanaian economy.

He made this call during a courtesy call on him by China's ambassador to Ghana, Sun Baohong, where the two discussed the new cooperation guidelines, which was issued by the National Development and Reform Committee and the Ministry of Commerce of the People's Republic of China.

"We want investors to take advantage of the numerous raw materials we have around us. We need to improve and strengthen our food processing, packaging industries and light manufacturing and China has the technology and resources to help us to do that," the minister said.

Spio-Garbrah also proposed to organise an investment forum on Ghana on the margins of the World Investment Forum to be held in China to enable some of the more than 5,000 participants to focus their attention on the country.

According to data from the Ministry of Trade and Industries, China is Ghana's second largest trading partner after Europe and Ghana is the seventh largest trading partner of China among African countries.

China is by far Ghana's largest supplier of imports, supplying 18.3 percent of Ghana's imports worth some $2,096 billion in 2013. China is also Ghana's ninth largest export destination, accounting for 2.2 percent of exports worth $420 million in 2013.

Dominating these exports to China are traditional or primary exports, such as unprocessed cocoa, raw metals, wood products, and petroleum oils, which account for 96 percent of exports to the Asian nation.

"As the largest developing country, China has the obligation, commitment and capabilities to provide impetus for the development of other developing countries through bilateral cooperation in areas such as infrastructure and technological transfer," the Chinese envoy stated.

Sun took the opportunity to invite the minister to lead a delegation from Ghana to attend the World Investment Forum which would be held in Fujian province in China in September.