Chinese Ambassador to Ghana Tong Defa late Wednesday pledged the Chinese government’s support to the new development focus of the Ghanaian government.
Tong said during a media interaction that China is aware of the new initiatives of the government, including the 24-Hour Economy and the Feed Ghana Program, among others, being rolled out by the government and would align their support to suit these programs.
The ambassador said since Ghana and China have elevated their bilateral relation to the level of strategic partnership, “We are willing to align with the Ghanaian government’s new agenda.”
“One area of focus is how to help Ghana to achieve industrialization, agricultural modernization, and infrastructure development,” Tong stated.
He added that China would continue to support Ghana through the process of finding solutions to its debt issues, as it has been doing through the official creditor committee it co-chairs with France.
Tong added that one other area China is ready to deepen support for Ghana is in the area of job creation.
“We will encourage more Chinese companies to invest over here to establish big projects. We are always encouraging Chinese companies to build factories here, and this is important and a core interest of the Ghanaian government because a lot of people need jobs,” he stated.
He added, “With building factories, the Chinese companies can help to provide jobs, and these factories can produce to export to neighboring countries.”
The ambassador lauded the growing relations between Ghana and China, adding that the relations have been beneficial for both sides.
According to Tong, the founding fathers of both countries had laid a solid foundation for the bilateral, which continues to grow from strength to strength, including the growing trade relation between the two countries.
“Last year, our bilateral trade volume was valued at over 12 billion U.S. dollars. We have been the largest trading partner of Ghana for many years. So there is a lot of communication between our two countries,” he stated.
The ambassador said during the last summit of the Forum for China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) in Beijing last year, the two presidents of China and Ghana elevated the bilateral relation between their two countries to a strategic partnership.
He said China is happy about the peaceful and smooth transition of power in Ghana early this year with John Dramani Mahama’s administration taking over.
“We have great admiration for Mahama, and we had a special envoy attending his inauguration. Definitely, we will see more close exchanges with Ghana in trade, in high-level exchanges, and in people-to-people exchanges,” he added.