Vice President calls for collaboration in Ghana’s transportation, housing sectors
Vice President John Dramani Mahama on Wednesday announced that Government would draw up effective collaborative programmes to ensure a workable mortgage and transport system in the country.
He said in spite of the numerous housing and transport projects government was undertaking, there were still tremendous deficits in housing, while transport was mostly based on the road system.
Vice President Mahama announced this when a nine-member Houston-based American business delegation called on him at the Castle, Osu.
The delegation was on a reciprocal visit to an earlier one Vice President Mahama had paid them on his recent trip to the United States of America (USA) in June this year.
The group was made up of business personnel in housing, transport, agriculture and oil and gas exploration and exploitation in the USA.
The Vice President expressed dissatisfaction that Ghanaian workers had to invest a chunk of their salaries in building projects, which some never even enjoyed before their retirement and called on the delegation to meet the appropriate authorities in those sectors for collaboration.
On the Transport system, Vice President Mahama said the concentration was on road alone, leading to congestion in the major cities of the country and called for collaboration to introduce light trains in the major cities to serve as alternative means of transport to the ever growing population.
“Ghana is growing and we have a lot of sanitation challenges; I know the USA has gone through a lot of these development challenges that you can share with us to develop.”
He said government had stepped up collections of the road fund to expand road facilities throughout the country, which however did not include the improvement of the transport system; he expressed the hope that their collaboration would enhance the achievement in the coming years.
Vice President Mahama commended the delegation for their visit and hoped that such effective collaborations would yield mutual dividends for the development of both countries.
Madam Jolanda “Jo” Jones of the Houston City Council said they would explore all partnership opportunities to enhance the development needs of both countries.
She promised to meet all partners in their areas of interest to cement relationships that would pave way for continuous development and growth of the two countries.
Source: GNA