Ghana, European Union sign ¢2.5 trillion agreement
Togolese
government procures cocoa drink for pupils
Christian Agubretu,
GNA Correspondent- Freetown
Freetown (Sierra Leone) 23 October
2002- Sierra Leone on Monday formally invited Ghana to invest in all sectors of
her economy, which suffered 10 years battering of rebel war.
There were special
appeals to those engaged in agro-processing industry and Unilever Ghana Limited
to establish industries in the country. Dr. Kadi Sesay, Sierra Leonean Minister
of Trade told an investment forum at the first Ghana-Sierra Leone Week in
Freetown aimed at promoting cultural and trade relations between the two
countries that private investment must begin with South-South economic
co-operation.
"Africa's share
of the total world capital is insignificant - less than one per cent, although
Africa accounts for 12 per cent of the world population. The importance of trading and learning from
each other within the sub-region as the first building block in our
globalisation efforts is therefore obvious."
Dr Sesay said,
"The government of Sierra Leone is inviting all well meaning, honest
Ghanaians and other companies to invest in Sierra Leone, particularly by opening
industries in Sierra Leone, either through partnership or joint ventures or 100
per cent foreign-owned ventures."
She said the Sierra
Leone government was working hard "to create the necessary enabling
environment for investment. Many of the
factors that have often deterred investment capital flow to Sierra Leone are
being address.
Sierra Leone is now a
peaceful country, having emerged from a 10 years of turmoil. "Sierra Leone
is making moves to deter and detect corruption through its anti-corruption
commission activities," she told the forum.
Ghana's President John
Agyekum Kufuor and his Sierra Leonean counterpart Alhaji Ahmed Tijan Kabah
initiated the week during the former's visit to Sierra Leone early this year.
Alhaji Kabah was said
to have requested that, now that Ghanaian troops had helped to bring peace in
his country, Ghana should as well help in the rebuilding of the country. Dr
Sesay, in her keynote address said: "Sierra Leone, is redoubling its
efforts in trying to address concerns of poorly maintained
infrastructure."
She said, "But in
spite of just coming out of a war Sierra Leone has achieved macro-economic
stability, characterised by single digit annual inflation rate and stable
exchange rate.
"The economy is
fully liberalised and open to foreign investment with no restriction on
remittance of dividends" Dr Sesay said, "this one week trade fair has
demonstrated the comparative advantage Ghana has in the manufacturing sector.
"The important
expected output is to see a motivated Sierra Leone manufacturing sector sitting
with their Ghanaian counterparts, establishment partnership, making
arrangements from investment.
Dr Sesay called on
GRATIS Foundation of Ghana to train Sierra Leoneans in the appropriate
technology of food processing, bee-keeping, weaving industry and packaging
materials since there was "clearly a weak link in the production chain in
Sierra-Leone."
Asking Unilever to
establish an industry in Ghana, Dr. Sesay said: "The popularity of
Unilever products (washing powder, and soaps) to the Sierra Leone public during
this week's fair has reinforce my belief that this will be a worthwhile venture
for our countries.
"Sierra Leone has
available the necessary raw materials like palm oil, palm kernel, cocoa and
coffee, which could be used for that industry." She described the first
Ghana-Sierra Leone week as "a great success" and said it must
continue.
Mr Abubakar Saddique
Boniface, Deputy Minister of Trade and Industry said Ghana has accepted Sierra
Leone offer and it would focus on those in the private sector with the
government providing the enabling environment.
He said the government
would explore all possibilities "to help our Sierra Leone brothers and
sisters." Mr Boniface said business thrived well in a peaceful and stable
environment and that it was in that light that the effort of Sierra Leone
government in restoring confidence of investors was appreciable.
He said he was hopeful
that investment flow between the two countries should engage serious attention
of the leadership of the countries. Those presents included Mr Joe Aggrey and
Madam Theresa Togoe, Deputy Ministers of Youth and Sports and Works and Housing
respectively.
Papers were presented
by Gratis, Ghana Export Investment Centre, Ghana Architectural Engineering
Services Limited (AESL), Association of Building Civil Contractors of Ghana and
Sierra Leonean Development and Investment Corporation (SLEDIC).
GRi…/
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Accra (Greater Accra)
23 October 2002- Ghana and the European Union (EU) on Tuesday signed a
five-year Country Strategic Paper (CSP) and Indicative Programme under which
the EU is providing a grant of about 2.5 trillion cedis (311 million Euro) to
address various projects.
The document provides
a comprehensive and coherent framework for EU-Ghana cooperation for 2002-2007.
It was signed by Mr Yaw Osafo-Maafo, Minister of Finance and Mr Stefan Frowein,
Head of the European Commission's Delegation in Ghana.
It is divided into
categories with the first category of 231 million Euro and the second of 80
million Euro. Under the first category, 35 percent of the amount goes into
rural development, 30 percent into road transport, 26 percent to support
macro-economic and nine percent for other programmes such as capacity building.
The 80 million Euro in
the second category is earmarked for unforeseen needs such as emergency
assistance and support to mitigate adverse effects of instability in support
earnings. Forty million Euro would be used to finance the mining sector
development project.
Mr Osafo-Maafo said
the CSP document is a comprehensive development framework established under the
Cotonou Agreement signed in June 2000 to help address the multi-dimensional
nature of poverty.
He said the key
objectives of the CSP are to help achieve accelerated poverty reduction,
equitable growth and ensure the integration of the Ghanaian economy into the
global economy, based on conclusions of the Ghana Poverty Reduction Strategy.
Mr Osafo-Maafo said to
date the total of EU assistance since Ghana joined the
African-Caribbean-pacific (ACP) group in 1975 is about 1.1 billion Euro. He
said over the years arrangements of that nature had been on relatively narrow
levels known as the National Indicative Programme (NIP) with lower levels of
resources.
He said the current
CSP and indicative programme, however, provide a higher allocation of funds in
real terms than the NIP. Mr Osafo-Maafo said in addition to the amount, funds
from the European Investment Bank, would also be available on a long-term basis
and accessible to the private sector. He said it would operate as a revolving
fund aimed at financial self-sustainability.
He said other areas
such as small and medium enterprises, infrastructure and direct funding to
large projects in key sectors of the economy such as agro-industry, mining and
tourism, would benefit.
Mr Frowein said the
document was developed in Ghana as a joint programme and the work would be
monitored and evaluated.
GRi…/
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Togolese
government procures cocoa drink for pupils
Tema (Greater Accra)
23 October 2002- The Togolese government's policy that school pupils should be
served with cocoa drink instead of other soft drinks has made the Cocoa
Processing Company (CPC) to increase its export in the sub-region.
Currently, CPC
supplies about 12,000 tonnes of cocoa powder to Togo a month to earn between 50
and 60 million CFA, approximately, 49,672,165 cedis. Dr Paul Awuah, CPC
Managing Director, said this when Mr Ishmael Ashietey, Minister of State
in-charge of Fisheries, visited the factory located in the Tema East
constituency.
''Togo's consumption
of cocoa products is more than that of Ghana", Dr Awuah said. He said CPC
would by December next year, increase cocoa processing when expansion works at
the factory are completed.
''This will help the
company to add value to about 60 percent of Ghana's cocoa. At present we add
value to 25 percent of our cocoa.'' Dr Awuah appealed to the government to sell
cocoa beans to the company at the price that prevails at the international
commodity market.
He said CPC buys cocoa
beans for processing far above the prevailing world market price. ''This is not
good enough and can be frustrating. This will not encourage investors to come
into the country to help add value to our raw cocoa.''
GRi…/
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