China committed to support Ghana

Daily Graphic, Pg. 19, Sat. March 27/09

Story & Picture: Rebecca Quaicoe-Duho

THE Chinese Ambassador to Ghana, Mr Yu Wenzhe, has reaffirmed his government’s commitment to support Ghana with both infrastructure and technical needs that will help the country to develop in all spheres.
According to him, China and Ghana has been friends for many years and it is part of his government’s aspiration to further promote the friendship and co-operation that exist between the two countries.
The ambassador said this when he paid a courtesy call on the Minister for Women and Children’s Affairs (MOWAC), Ms Akua Sena Dansua, at the ministry yesterday.
He said although the current global recession had affected economies in most countries, China was still committed to fulfilling its pledge of helping Ghana with development projects.
He mentioned some of the projects being executed by China in Ghana as the Bui Dam project and the building of schools and hospitals in different parts of the country.
He congratulated the minister on her appointment, saying that her ministry was important to the socio-economic development of the country and stressed China’s readiness to support activities of the ministry.
He said women played important roles in the development of China’s economy and advised that if women in Ghana were empowered they would be able to play a central role in developing the country.
He also congratulated Ghanaians on the 2008 elections, saying that although it was keenly contested, it was basically peaceful, free and fair.
Ms Dansua thanked the Chinese Government for the cordial relations with Ghana over the decades.
She called for more assistance in the areas of skills training for women and scholarships for the youth.
She said women constituted over 50 per cent of the country’s population while children formed 30 per cent, and therefore, there was the need for the two countries to partner each other to develop the competence base of women and children in order that at the end it would lead to the overall development of the country.
The minister appealed to China to support women farmers in the country with agro-processing equipment in order to stop the wastage that normally occurred during bumper harvests.
She noted that the government over the years had taken steps to enhance the status of women in the country and expressed the present government’s determination to continue in that direction.
Ms Dansua later presented a documentation of some of the conventions and protocols that Ghana had acceded to over the years to the ambassador and said they were all aimed at protecting the rights of women and children in the country.
She called on the ambassador to use his good offices to help the ministry to be well equipped in terms of computers and the development of the human resource base in order that they would be able to live up to the task for which it was established.
Ms Dansua also introduced to the ambassador the Deputy Minister for MOWAC, Hajia Hawawu Boya Gariba, and other members of staff including the Director of the Department of Children, Mr Peter Edduful, the acting Director of the Department of Women, Mrs Francesca Pobe-Hayford, and the Chief Director of the ministry, Mr Valentine Kuzuume.