Ghana wants closer ties with Canada in oil, railways, aviation

President John Dramani Mahama on Thursday called for partnership between the Government of Ghana and Canada in the areas of railways rehabilitation, improvement in the aviation system and oil and gas production.

The rehabilitation and improvement of the sectors, he said, would help to decongest the roads, and provide faster alternative means of hauling goods within the country and beyond, while the aviation system would also bring alternative transport and improvement in the transport system.

President Mahama made the call  when Mr Ed Fast, Canadian Minister for International Trade, led a delegation to visit him at the Osu Castle, Accra.

The delegation, which is made up of 29 companies, is in the country to partner government and the private sector in the areas of mining, education, health, power generation, capacity building and other infrastructural development.

President Mahama said the congestion on major roads in the cities had compelled government to find alternative means of rehabilitating railways to make it more vibrant and cheaper for the travelling public.

He said the country was also lagging in  health, education and other infrastructural development, and partnership with Canada would help to accelerate the development of those areas.

President Mahama said partnership would be shifted from government to government, to public-private and private-private partnership to help fine-tune the middle income status of the country in succeeding years.

“The economic growth is about 29 percent per annum and the partnership to generate power and other development projects would spur the country to achieve its development goals,” he said .

Mr Fast said apart from mining, education and health, the Canadian companies were also interested in developing small and micro hydro dam projects that would serve as back-ups for existing major electricity projects in the country.

He said the Canadian companies were interested in investing in Ghana on account of her political stability, economic growth and a good destination for trade, and appealed to government to support the companies to achieve their investment goals.

Source: GNA