Business News of Wednesday, 30 May 2018
Source: Hamza Lansah Lolly
2018-05-30
Northern Regional Minister, Hon Salifu Sa-eed with a delegations from Jiangxi Province
A delegation of business executives and investors from the Jiangxi Province, China, will soon visit Ghana to explore the potentials and business opportunities in the Northern Region.
The Jiangxi Province as part of its Global partnership project has since expressed the Province’s interest to bring technology and invest in the modernization of Agriculture and infrastructure development in the Northern Region.
Again, they will establish processing factories for the shea, mango, watermelon, soya beans and other economic crops in the region.
The Jiangxi Province through its technology transfer with local constructors will build beautiful high-rise buildings and industrial parks to beautify and promote tourism in the Northern Region.
It is estimated, the Jiangxi Province, China will be investing over $10 billion in the Northern region.
The Jiangxi Province with a population of 46 million people is one of the advance premier cities in China with technological drive development especially in the Green Agriculture organic production, housing, technology and the aviation industry.
Jiangxi Province supporting economies around the world deeply engage in the development of the “Belt and Road” is ever enlarging her own circle of international friends.
The business cards of Jiangxi such as Kenneth Kaunda International Airport, the Sino Kazakhstan Ganjian Industrial Park, the Malaysian Agro-Industrial park for Human Food Stuffs and the new energy vehicles running in North America are receiving “thumps up” from countries around the world.
Over 200 countries and regions in the world have become cooperative partners with Jiangxi Province to seek common development.
The Chinese government has encouraged and supported its companies to increase direct investment in Africa and explore new cooperative modes of investment such as public-private partnership (PPP).
Chinese companies have built a lot of highways, railways, ports, airports and communication facilities, greatly improving Africa’s economic development environment and helping Africa attract foreign investment. China has currently invested the sum of US$170 billion on trade in Africa.
According to a Jiangxi Province’s investor, they have been looking forward for the opportunity to enhance and deepen their bilateral cooperation with Ghana, adding that, Ghana has become the best investment destination in Africa especially the huge potentials and investment opportunities in the North of Ghana.
He believed that, the intraregional partnership between Jiangxi Province, China and Northern Region, will bring mutual benefits to both countries, adding that, the Province is delighted to enter into development partnership with the Northern Region.
The Northern Regional Minister, Hon Salifu Sa-eed who initiated the intraregional relationship between the two regions (Northern Region and the Jiangxi Province) noted that, the purpose of the partnership is to further strengthened the friendly cooperation between China and Ghana.
Presenting the developmental blue-print of the Northern Region to several business executives and investors in the Jiangxi Province, Hon Sa-eed accentuated the potentials and investment opportunities in the region.
He said, the region which constitutes one-third of the landmass of Ghana is endowed with several natural resources that needs collaborative efforts from investment partners to harness its huge potentials.
Hon Salifu Sa-eed stated that, the region is agrarian with very fertile lands and good soil facility to produce all kinds of Agricultural products including crops, cash crops and livestock.
He added that, despite the challenges in revamping the Agricultural sector, the northern region still remains the country’s food basket dedicating its vast land into Agricultural production and livestock.
The Northern Minister hinted that, the over 80% of the agrarian lands are still unexploited but very optimistic the partnership with Jiangxi Province will exploit the opportunities in the Agricultural sector.
Hon Salifu Sa-eed said the region is also endowed with rich mineral resources such as gold, iron ore, Manganese, Limestone, Granite, Clay, copper and bauxite, adding that, the Northern Region is also blessed with onshore crude oil and biogas.
Hon Sa-eed said the principle of the partnership is about sharing knowledge and technology between the Northern region and Jiangxi Province, adding that, the partnership will bring mutual benefits both Ghana and China.
The Northern Regional Minister noted that cultural exchange programmes will be part of the cooperation with the Jiangxi Province, adding that, the Northern Region (Ghana) and Jiangxi Province (China) has a very rich cultural heritage which must be explored.
The Minister therefore assured the people of Jiangxi Province, China, Ghana government’s support and the region’s preparedness to host its delegation to Ghana. “You can be sure of proper and befitting hospitality in my region”.
The Northern Regional Minister, Hon Salifu Sa-eed who was accompanied by his Chief Director, and some business executives from the region where taking to several technology and tourism sites in Jiangxi Province, China.
The Minister also met with Mr. Zhing Minfeng, Chairman of the Zhongmei Engineering Group Limited, one of the World’s topnotch engineering and Construction Company.
The Zhongmei Engineering Group Limited was contracted by the erstwhile President John Agyekum Kufour government that constructed the Tamale Sports Stadium (now Aliu Mahama Stadium) for the 2008 African Cup of Nations hosted by Ghana.
Zhongmei Engineering Group Ltd is affiliated to Coal Geological Bureau of Jiangxi Province, with its headquarter in Jiulong Lake International Expo Center in the historical and cultural city of Nanchang. As an internationalized municipal group of special grade which starts from Jiangxi Province and conducts trans-provincial, trans-regional and transnational business, the group has been shortlisted for the Top 250 Global Contractors (ranking 111th in 2016) for five successive years.
The Northern Regional Minister, Hon Salifu Sa-eed in an interviewed stated that, the investment of the Zhongmei Engineering Group alone will create over 10, 000 jobs and the technological transfer will also help in the transformation of the Northern Region and beyond.
“Our focus is to put the northern region at the world’s map especially the advance countries such as China for technological transfer and investment”. He said
The Northern Regional Minister affectionately called Hon SS revealed that, his visit to the Jiangxi Province, China has yielded positive results, “My visit was very successful and all the investors and business executives that we met are willing to come to the region”.
Hon Sa-eed revealed that, as part of the technology transfer, the University for Development Studies (UDS), the Tamale Technical University and other educational institutions will be linked up with Universities in the Jiangxi Province, China.
“The Jiangxi Province will also provide scholarships for our students. China has trained and provided scholarships for 20,000 African students into various educational institutions in China”.
With the deliberate policies and initiatives by the NPP government to industrialized and transformed the Ghanaian economy, we are going to see a large-scale infrastructure and industrial development in the northern region, so we have to prepare ourselves and take advantage of the our friendship with China”. He emphasized