Minister of Trade and Industry, Dr Ekwow Spio-Garbrah, has urged Ghanaian scientists to team up with their Turkish counterparts to harness the country’s huge natural resources for development.
Speaking at the opening of the first Turkish products fair in Accra, the Minister said Ghana was endowed with many natural resources but optimising these resources to improve Ghana’s economy was a challenge.
“Beyond our natural resources, which we talk a lot about like the gold and diamonds and manganese, our forest products, agro products, our sea and marine resources, there is a whole blown economy beyond the waters of Ghana which we have barely tapped into. … So, we are looking for Turkish science and technology to partner with Ghanaian science and technology to push this nation forward and to strengthen and deepen our relationship,” he stated.
Dr Spio-Garbrah also appealed to Turkish businessmen in Ghana and other foreign businesses to list on the stock exchange for Ghanaians to become shareholders in them.
“Companies come here and when you ask them about their shareholding structure, they say they are trying to establish a 100 per cent-owned business and I say: ‘Why?’ Don’t you want Ghanaians to be shareholders in your company? You are going to come to Ghana and you are going to ask for Ghanaian land and Ghanaian tax incentives, ask for Ghanaian consumers, ask for Ghanaian financial institutions to do business with you, but you don’t want Ghanaian shareholders, then that’s a problem. And the fact that the Ghana Investment Promotion Centre Act allows foreign companies to have 100 per cent ownership of companies is not the reason why you must try to have a 100 per cent ownership. A Ghanaian can partner with you in ideas, with knowledge, especially local knowledge, showing you the ways of getting things done and can also put money on the table in terms of actual cash injection into your business and so through a number of channels, we are encouraging our foreign partners that are coming here to think of Ghanaians also becoming part of the ownership of businesses,” he stressed.
Source: Ghana/AccraFM.com
