Accra, Sept. 19, GNA – President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, has been commended for entering into agreements with China, towards speeding up the socio-economic growth of the country.
« The government of Ghana is in the right direction in terms of looking to China for partnering towards Ghana’s development. »
Dr. Benjamin Anyagri, General Secretary of the Ghana China Friendship Association (GHACHIFA), told the Ghana News Agency that whilst Ghana had sought to achieve socio-economic progress from long known partners such as the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF), such support had not been able to adequately cater for the developmental needs of the country.
« The question is, when is Ghana getting out of IMF support, » Dr. Anyagri noted.
The GHACHIFA General Secretary said « the time has come for us to pause as a nation and take a close look at our past sources of aid and what we have gained from them so far, in order to realize the option of looking to other sources for the over-all good and progress of the nation. »
He observed « for example » that the structural adjustment programme introduced into the country by the IMF, led to the divestiture implementation, which was meant to result in the privatisation of state industries for more job creation, adding, « is that the case now? »
Dr. Anyagri noted that the MOUs reached between the two countries during a recent visit by President Akufo-Addo to China, were geared towards the One Belt One Road (OBOR) initiative of China, which is an international policy being pursued by China with that country’s development partners.
He added, that OBOR consisted of growth propelling principles, such as infrastructure connectivity, policy integration, people to people relations, among others, adding that OBOR particularly worked towards the accomplishment of the SDGs of the UN.
The General Secretary of GHACHIFA observed that the 1992 constitution of Ghana enjoined respective governments of the country to ensure the economic rights of the citizenry, which was typically attainable through the actualisation of the MOUs Ghana signed with China.
Dr. Anyagri said OBOR was unique in the sense that it offered a win-win engagement policy, with an interest based approach, adding that, « once Chinese and Ghanaian interests meet, we will now have to find experts to study the MOUs per implementation plan. »
He stressed, that these should be non-partisan experts, who could and would ensure that Ghana is indeed being served well per the agreements.
« If an agreement has to do for example with exchanging a quantity of our natural resources for some investment or other gain from China, we would need to know how much natural resource is going out, and we should also be assured that it would tally with what Ghana would gain in return, » Dr. Anyagri said.
The GHACHIFA General Secretary stressed that it was very much needed, that all was done to ensure, that a win-win agenda was achieved.
With China recently becoming the world’s second largest economy, fruitful interactions are taking place severally between China and several other countries all over the world.
A key feature of this new development, is that China has chosen Africa as one of its key allies for progressive partnering.
Ghana has so far benefited greatly from collaborating with China in several areas such as education, agriculture, defence, hydro-electric power generation, agriculture, construction and a number of others.
