High Commission of IndiaAccra, Ghana

Hon’ble Minister for Business Development Mr. Ibrahim Mohammad Awal was the Chief Guest at the India- Ghana Breakfast Business meet held at World Trade Centre (WTC) on 27th March with participation of approximately 40 Indian and Ghanaian captains of industry and business leaders.

2.In his remarks, Hon’ble Minister stated that the blueprint of “One District One Factory” scheme urged the Indian businesses to be part of “One district, one factory” project. He lauded the role played by Indian business community in Ghana in her economic development, many of whom are now Ghanaian citizens, particularly their contribution to the Ghanaian economy by creating jobs and generating revenue. He made a special reference about the clean image of Indian investors in Ghana and welcomed them to increase their footprint in various sectors.

3.In his remarks, High Commissioner gave an overall view of India- Ghana relations as part of India’s enhanced engagement with Africa post 3rd India Africa Forum Summit. He dwelt upon the developmental partnership, which has already crossed US dollar half a billion mark, highlighted strong capacity building cooperation and the large impact of small Indian grant assistance projects such as India-Ghana Koffi Annan Centre for IT Excellence and tomato research project. He also emphasized the need to diversify the trade basket so as to achieve the target of increasing the bilateral trade turnover form current USD 3 billion to USD 5 billion by 2020 as was envisaged by the Hon’ble President of India during his State visit to Ghana in June 2016. He made special mention of the buyer’s credit of US$ 398.33 million for the Tema-Akosombo railway line and noted that Government of India has already approved US$ 150 million for agriculture mechanization and US$ 30 million for Yendi portable water supply projects. He said India would welcome any new project proposal for consideration under line of credit mechanism as per the priorities of the government of Ghana. He appealed to the representatives of Indian trade and Industry to take advantage of the business friendly initiatives of the new government to give boost to Indian investment and bilateral trade.

4.Counsellor(Commercial) made a presentations on MSME sector and underlined this important contribution to GDP, exports and employment generation. He shared the governmental support to Start Ups and the economic transformation happening in India with demonetization and passage of GST Bill. WTC official presented analysis of Indo- Ghana Trade and in his recommendations also urged for diversification of the trade basket. Mr Ashok Mohinani, a leading businessman and ED of Mohinani group shared his business experience with the audience. The remarks were followed by an interactive session wherein lots of queries/comments were regarding the new trade and investment policies of the new administration in Ghana and how these could be leveraged to further expand India-Ghana economic and commercial relations. Seeing the usefulness of such interaction, it was agreed that such interaction would be organized on quarterly basis.