Ghana looks to deepen bilateral relations with France
Ghana’s Trade Minister, Mr Haruna Iddrisu, said Ghana is looking forward to deepening bilateral relations with the French government in order to promote exports.
He said government was building strong relationship between the public and the private sector and the French could take advantage of it as well as the political stability of Ghana to establish major businesses.
Mr Iddrisu was addressing 20 French business delegation, who are in Accra to explore business opportunities in Ghana in response to President John Dramani’s visit to that country.
He said Ghana was abound with opportunities in the agricultural sector, and mentioned northern and central regions as some of the areas that have immense agricultural potentials, which if exploited would help reduce poverty.
Mr Iddrisu said government was also interested in large scale vegetable production.
He assured the delegation that companies that would establish agricultural processing factories would be considered with some tax exemptions.
The Trade’s Minister expressed Ghana’s gratitude to the French Government for helping to secure stability in Mali.
Mrs Nicole Bricq, French Minister for Foreign Trade in Accra, who led the delegation, said French business community saw Ghana as a an important partner in Africa, not only for its economic potential weight, but also its political stability and ease of doing business that attract foreign investment.
She said a number of French companies had made some substantial investments in the banking, harbor, petroleum and hotel sectors among others in Ghana.
Mrs Bricq announced that the French was keen to increase its trade, which represented 1.37 billion dollars for the year 2012 and investment shares in the country.
She said 60 French companies had already established in Ghana and the trend of new comers was increasing smoothly as Ghana offered a good environment for international investors and great outlooks in the sectors in which French companies had an international know-how.
The Foreign Trade Minister announced that her visit formed part of preparatory work for the France-Afrique Summit, which the French Presidency would organise in Paris in December and President John Dramani Mahama would be invited to attend.
The delegation dubbed: “Movement of the Enterprises of French” international for Africa, travelled to Ghana to explore business opportunities, with companies involved in agribusiness, urban transport, power and energy, gas, telecommunication and banking, water and sanitation, manufacturing, meat processing, diary and input provision.
Source: GNA