“We hope to reinvigorate, and have a very thriving economic cooperation between Ghana and China.” said byPeter Manu Owusu, Consul General of the Republic of Ghana in Guangzhou during his interview with SFC reporter.
Peter Manu Owusu attended The 2nd China High-quality Consumption Exhibition and Hengqin Global Bay Areas Forum which was being held in Hengqin and Macao SAR from Decmber 13th to 17th with the theme of “World-class Bay Areas Lead An Open Economy”. The forum attracted a wide range of officials, scholars, businessmen from different fields to discuss how to further promote the high-quality market and opening-up of Greater Bay Areas in the future.
Over the years, China and Ghana have maintained a long-term friendly relation and have signed a number of agreements on economic and trade cooperation. About the futher coopoeration on trade and education between China and Ghana,Peter Manu Owusumentioned many great examples of cocoa, oil and EV vehicle.
SFC Markets and Finance:Could you please introduce the current state of economic cooperation between Ghana and China?
Peter Manu Owusu:China has been a traditional friend of Ghana.We started our friendship cooperation in the yearof1960.That was three years after our independence,and just after establishing the diplomatic mission, our friendship started there.In the yearof1961, we signed Friendship Cooperation Agreement with China.Ever since, we have exchanged a lot of political and economic cooperationbetween the two countries for the mutual benefits of our people.We've had a lot of projects and other economic cooperation agreements in Ghana.
First of all, we have a lot of projects on construction of schools.A lot of projects are also ongoing, on educational infrastructure in Ghana. For instance,we have the University of Health and Allied Sciences with China under that cooperation agreement.Chinais building a lot of educational infrastructures.China is also extending the fishing harbor in the suburb of Accra.We call it the Jamestown, it's a fishing harbor.China is expanding the construction of the fishing harbor facility.Again, another same project agreement,we have China building the Ministry of Foreign Affairs block for both the main ministry and also the research department of our ministry.So on that line we have had a lot of constructionsfrom the Chinese side,thatarereally helping Ghana's development.We hope to reinvigorate,and have a very thriving economic cooperation between Ghana and China.
SFC Markets and Finance:The forum’s theme is SFC Markets and Finance“World-class Bay Areas LeadAn Open Economy”. How do you view the level of openness and the business environment of the Greater Bay Area?
Peter Manu Owusu: Yes, as was discussed or as the various speakers mentioned, we have basically 4 bay areas, including the Hong Kong-Macao-Guangdong Greater Bay Area. It's very peculiar because it combines all. We have "one China and two systems". So it offers a very fantastic and unique platform for higher quality development. And I hope that when it takes off fully, it will outgrow or it will even grow beyond what the trade that we have on the ground now.
SFC Markets and Finance: In your opinion,howthe construction of the Greater Bay Areawill bring the benefits and convenience for the trade between China and Ghana?
Peter Manu Owusu:Yes, of course, because we are expecting a lot of companies that would be attracted to Ghana.We are expecting that most of the companies that will be in theGBAwould want to do business in Ghana.And we expect we have a lot of productsthatareexports,both traditional and non-traditional itemswe intendtoexport to China.And the companies in theGBA, we are expecting to do business with them.
But let me remind you,Ghana is the second world producer of cocoa. And interestingly we have very limited consumption of cocoa in China.So to speak, we are underperformingand we wish that in the future,we can increase the consumption of cocoa products in theGBA.I know for a fact that China is helping Ghanabuild a cocoa processing plant.So when it's complete, the products in the value chain we export to China to helpstrengthen our relations.
SFC Markets and Finance: Which fields do you think Guangdong Province will have more cooperation opportunities with Ghana in the future?
Peter Manu Owusu:Yes, I mentioned to you earlier,that not only do we have cocoa, we have other products. We have pineapple.We have a lot of agricultural products. But not only that,we can also do a lot of cooperation on oil and gas.Ghana is an oil producing country.We have a lot of crude,that we can attract a lot of Chinese investment to Ghana.You cantrust investors to come to Ghana for oil exploration.Not only that, you know with the up-and-coming phasing-out of the oil vehicle,and the introduction of the EV vehicles.We think that we can rely on China tosupply Ghana with a lot of EV cars.Because from the various climate-related agreements that we have entered into with,we think that we are phasing out the non-EV cars and then China will be a good partner to supply us with the EV cars,which will go a long way to position Ghana in our climate resilience project.
SFC Markets and Finance: This year marks the 10th anniversary of the Belt and Road Initiative. How do you view the achievements of the Belt and Road Initiative between China and Africa?
Peter Manu Owusu:You will see that China is trying to develop this initiative with a view to tracing the history of its trade route from Africa,from Kenya, Egypt, Sudan, thatareAfrican countries,then to United Arab Emirates, that's the Middle East area, then to Asia, and some parts of Europe.
We in Ghana think that once the African hinge is properly introduced,we stand a lot of opportunity to tap into it.We can do a lot of trade and economic cooperation under the Belt and Road Initiative on the African strengthand that is a very important part that Ghana can benefit from.
SFC Markets and Finance: In 2020, the total number of Ghanaian students in China was 5,777, consistently ranking among the top in Africa for years. How do you envision further development in cultural and educational exchanges between China and Ghana?
Peter Manu Owusu:You rightly suggested that you see a very active cooperation between China and Ghana on education. It isan area that Ghana takes very seriously.The government in place now takes education very paramount.We have a free education system for childrenup to the free basic education system,up to Senior High School.And so the government is actually very serious with education in Ghana.And now she rightly said at the basic level, we are able to produce a lot of graduates before entry into university.So we think that our relation with China on offering scholarships for our students is very paramount. And I'm happy to indicate that we have not been disappointed at all.We have a lot of students in China,and so far scholarships that China has granted are very enormous.So we are very thankfulthat China is helping Ghana position us in a way that we can develop our human resource capacity for the development of our country.
策划:于晓娜
监制:施诗
拍摄:谢鸿州
制作:蔡于恬
新媒体统筹:丁青云 曾婷芳 赖禧 黄达迅
海外运营监制: 黄燕淑
海外运营内容统筹: 黄子豪
海外运营编辑:庄欢 吴婉婕 龙李华 张伟韬
出品:南方财经全媒体集团
