Ghana’s Vice-President, Professor Naana Jane Opoku-Agyemang, has called on Chinese investors to establish more industries in Ghana to create jobs for the country’s growing youthful population and accelerate economic development.
She identified shea and cocoa processing as key investment opportunities, stressing the need to link skills development to industrial expansion to ensure that trained young people have employment opportunities.
The Vice-President warned that training young people without establishing industries to absorb their skills could worsen unemployment, urging Ghana and China to deepen knowledge-sharing to support industrial growth.
She made the call while highlighting the longstanding economic and diplomatic relations between the two countries, noting that existing Chinese investments in Ghana demonstrated the country’s readiness to welcome more business opportunities.
Prof. Opoku-Agyemang cited investments in transportation and gas through bilateral business partnerships as evidence of the potential for further cooperation, saying the businesses had achieved relative success and could contribute even more to Ghana’s development.
“If for nothing at all, I think this shows that Ghana is always open for business. Those businesses are relatively successful, and we know that they can do even more than they have done. So that is a testimony of what we are capable of doing,” she said.
She acknowledged that Ghana and China had different strengths and development experiences but shared a common vision of improving the living conditions of their people.
According to her, Ghana could draw lessons from China’s development experience, particularly its efforts to reduce poverty and hunger, while building on its own progress to address existing development challenges.
The Vice-President said stronger knowledge-sharing between the two countries would help Ghana expand its industrial base and accelerate economic transformation.
She further noted that although Ghana had not always benefited from long-term development planning, the country was making progress and remained committed to achieving more in the coming years.
Prof. Opoku-Agyemang’s call underscores the importance of attracting investment into local processing and manufacturing, particularly in the agricultural sector, where adding value to commodities such as cocoa and shea could create jobs and improve economic opportunities for young people.
Source: Newspyramid.com
