The report of President Nana Addo DankwaAkufo-Addo’s delegation to the Dubai Expo 2020 and the investment of additional Can$5 million as a credit line facility to support young Ghanaian business entrepreneurs by Ghana-China Business Chamber of Commerce are some of the leading stories in the Ghanaian press on Tuesday.
The Graphic reports that President Nana Addo DankwaAkufo-Addo’s left Ghana on Monday, March 7, 2022, to lead Ghana’s delegation to the Dubai Expo 2020.
The Expo aims to forge new partnerships and inspire ground-breaking solutions across key industries worldwide.
It also seeks to raise awareness about the worldwide issues that mankind faces.
The Expoprovides several possibilities for networking and the promotion of international connections.
Individual pavilions will be set up at Expo 2020, with countries exhibiting their unique cultures and technical innovations.
President Akufo-Addo will deliver a statement on “Ghana Day”, scheduled for 8th March 2022; hold bilateral talks on matters of mutual interest with the Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi, His Highness Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan; participate in a Business Forum under the auspices of the Ghana Investment Promotion Centre (GIPC); and hold meetings with other investors interested in doing business in Ghana.
The President will return to Ghana on Thursday, 10th March, and in his absence, the Vice President, Alhaji Dr Mahamudu Bawumia, shall, in accordance with Article 60(8) of the Constitution, act in his stead.
The newspaper says that Ghana-China Business Chamber of Commerce has invested an additional Can$5 million as a credit line facility to support young Ghanaian business entrepreneurs.
This follows the offer of an earlier Can$20 million credit facility for young business people in the country to commemorate the 18th anniversary of the Ghana-China Business Chamber of Commerce.
The initiative forms part of the continuous support of the chamber to young Ghanaians engaged in import and export business and small and medium enterprises (SMEs).
In an interview, the Vice-Chairman and Secretary General of the Ghana-China Business Chamber of Commerce, Liu Wenmin, said the support would help many young people in the country to grow their businesses.
“We want business-oriented young Ghanaians to thrive and accelerate their determination to develop various businesses.
“There are more than 10,000 Chinese factories ready to supply these young businessmen in Ghana as quickly as possible to enable businesses in the country to flourish,” he said.
The Ghana-China Business Chamber of Commerce was established in 2003 to promote business and cooperation between the Chinese and Ghanaian business communities.
It aims to strengthen trade relations between the two countries and to bring together importers and exporters from both countries.
The Graphic also reports that as part of its mandate to finance and develop strategic import substitute products to support the reduction of Ghana’s import bill, the Ghana Exim Bank (GEXIM) is collaborating with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration to champion its industrialisation agenda.
The management of Ghana Exim Bank recently presented assorted Made-In-Ghana products to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration at its headquarters in Accra.
The presentation was a follow up to a strategic session the bank held in April 2021 with the then newly appointed diplomats to represent Ghana at the various diplomatic missions around the world.
The session gave the diplomats insight into the bank’s agenda to transform Ghana into an export led economy and highlighted the critical role of the foreign missions in achieving it.
The products on offer to the foreign missions included packaged jollof rice, waakye, gravy mix, groundnut soup, food spices, gari mix, shea butter, peanut and peanut butter, charcoal, koobi powder and salted fish paste. In addition were Ghanaian snacks such as nkate cake, roasted cashew, peanuts, and granola bars.
The Deputy Chief Executive Officer of Exim Bank responsible for Banking and Business, Rosemary Beryl Archer indicated the importance of the strategic partnership with the ministry and foreign missions to promote Ghanaian made products.
“On the occasion of our 65th independence anniversary, we want to utilise the platforms of our foreign missions to globalise our staples through value addition and improved packaging. We expect the heads of mission to explore avenues for improved packaging and state of the art equipment to support our industrialization agenda,” she stated.
She further added that, “it is important to work closely with the ministry and Ghanaian missions abroad to find new markets for these products. The support from our missions will enable our SMEs to meet the requirements for the international market and by so doing scale up in their operations.
“I am convinced this is the first step, which will be of great benefit for other key initiatives and projects we plan to roll out in our drive towards enhancing the capacity of Ghanaian exporters.”
The Ghanaian Times says that 64 more Ghanaian students who fled the ongoing war in Ukraine yesterday arrived at the Kotoka International Airport (KIA) in Accra.
The first batch made up of 55 students touched down from Romania around 7:30 am while the second group, comprising nine persons, arrived from Hungary at about 12: 05 in the afternoon.
They are the 8th and 9th batch of evacuees brought home over so far, bringing to more than 100, the number of Ghanaian nationals saved from the Ukraine-Russia conflict.
A delegation including the government’s spokesperson on governance and security, Palgrave Boakye-Danquah and Chief Executive Officer of the Mental Health Authority, Professor Akwasi Osei received the students.
Mr Boakye-Danquah re-affirmed the government’s commitment to ensuring that all students who avail themselves are evacuated and reunited with families in Ghana.
He said the government was considering various options on how they could continue their education either in the universities in the country or in other countries as offered.
He said one of the challenges they had faced in evacuating the students was that some of them would accept to return but on the day of departure they would not make themselves available.
Prof. Osei said the Authority would provide psychological support to the students to help them overcome the trauma they might have experienced due to the tragic incident they witnessed in Ukraine.
GIK/APA