China, Ghana eye for faster development
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The Chinese ambassador to Ghana said on Sunday that both countries are exploring opportunities for faster development as the world undergoes unprecedented changes and adjustment.
At a ceremony marking the 10th Anniversary of the Ghana-China Friendship Association (GHACHIFA) in the Ghanaian capital Accra, Yu Wenzhe said both countries are making efforts to boost their common interests through strengthened coordination, enhanced economic cooperation and more frequent cultural exchanges.
The GHACHIFA seeks to foster friendly relations between the governments of both countries and nongovernmental cooperation between the peoples of the two countries and to promote people-to-people exchanges, cultural exchanges and educational exchange programs, among others.
Yu reiterated China's eight-point development agenda for Ghana and Africa, which was announced at the just-ended Fourth Ministerial Conference of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation in Egypt.
The development agenda is also called the "Sharm El Sheikh Declaration." Together with the three-year "Action Plan for Sharm El-Sheikh (2010-2012)," it defines new measures for pushing forward China-Africa cooperation.
The Chinese official said the agenda highlights China's endeavor to increase aid to Africa, reduce debt owed by African countries, maximize investment in Africa, open more markets to Africa and promote scientific cooperation with Africa.
Yu said China's relationship with Ghana and the rest of the world is based on the principle of mutual respect and equality. "It is driven by our joint endeavor to pursue mutually-beneficial cooperation and common development. We treat each other as friends, brothers and equal partners," he said.
Tracing the friendship between the two countries to the era of Ghana's first President, Osagyefo Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, Yu said that after the Beijing Summit in 2006, the two countries had obtained good results in various fields.
Considering the volume of foreign trade between the two countries, Yu said, it has become quite necessary for the citizens of both countries to learn each other's language, culture, customs and social practices.
Yu appealed to Ghanaian ministries and authorities to continue improving the country's business environment in order to attract more foreign cooperation and investment and called on Chinese companies to share their business successful experience with Ghanaians.
He said his embassy would support the GHACHIFA to strengthen bilateral relations and announced a 4,000-dollar package to promote the association's operations.
He lauded the achievements made by the association in the past decade, which included promoting the mutual interests of the two countries, and supporting China's sovereignty, unification and territorial integrity.
"You have offered assistance to both Chinese and Ghanaians in their bilateral business activities, organized seminars and forums on topical issues, expressed great sympathy to the victims of China's Wenchuan earthquake in 2008, among others. All these have fully reflected the friendly sentiments of Ghanaians towards the Chinese," Yu stated.
According to GHACHIFA Vice President John Emmanuel Kwamina Moses, the association seeks to consolidate the 40-year-old diplomatic relations and cooperation between the two countries, which enjoy a profound traditional friendship.
The vision of GHACHIFA, he said, is to become a vibrant nationwide organization with what it has learned from the way China has done things.
The GHACHIFA official admitted that many opportunities for Ghanaians to forge partnerships with Chinese investors in the past were wasted because they did not have the requisite know-how to deal with Chinese investors.
He therefore appealed to the Ghanian business community to evaluate their capacities to so as to better operate in the global economy.
"The bilateral relations have been strengthened and deepened in political, economic, cultural and other fields in recent times. We believe the Ghana-China Friendship Association will play a more positive role in further promoting friendship and collaboration between China and Ghana," he said.
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