Trade and Industry Minister, Ekow Spio Garbrah has disclosed of plans by the government to tap into the opportunities presented by the current economic situation in China. China’s stock market and other markets have dipped to about 2.6 percent; with its economic growth forecast for 2016 reduced from 7 percent to 6.3 percent.
Though the global economy is being impacted by the development, Ghana could be said to be a beneficiary of the situation. According to Dr. Ekow Spio-Garbrah, government is currently engaging in talks with Chinese businesses over plans of relocating to operate in Ghana.
“The Chinese themselves have decided that they want to relocate a lot of their businesses to Ghana, they have written to the Ministry to prepare to receive them, over tens of thousands of Chinese companies need to relocate based on their own economic circumstances because of higher cost of production in their country especially labour cost due to a strong consumer market base.” He stated.
Dr. Spio Garbrah added, “They have been very successful over the last few years African economies have become more competitive so if they bring their capital here to add value to their products, it makes economic sense to them.”
Meanwhile the Chinese Ambassador to Ghana, Sun Baohong says China is committed to turn around, the current fortunes of the economy.
“China is a responsible country. Though there are many complex and uncertain factors in the global economic situation, China has made it clear it will not resort to measures such as trade protectionism or the old colonial way of plundering others to solve its own problem. We are fully aware of the fact that reform and opening up have played a defining role in the Chinese miracle and this will only be strengthened instead of being weakened.” She noted.
The 2015 third quarter Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) figures released by the Ghana Investment Promotion Center showed that China, with 14 projects, topped as the country with the highest number of investments. China, however with 144.85 million dollars, placed second to Turkey in terms of countries with high value of investments.
Credit: Citifmonline