<<Print>>

China's total direct investments in Ghana increased to over $500 million by the end of 2012, an official of the Ghana Embassy in Beijing has stated. Ghana ranks China first in the number of its registered projects in the country compared with other development partners and sixth in the value of registered investments in 2012. The Minister/Counsellor at the embassy, Mr Isaac Seth Odame, said this at a press conference organised by the China-Africa Countries Trade Promotion Association (CACTPA) to announce the first China-Africa Economic and Trade Expo in Qingdao, a coastal city in China. The expo, which will be held from July 26 to 29, 2014 in Quigdao is expected to attract over 1,000 exhibitors and 100,000 attendants from both Africa and China. It will be jointly hosted by the Qingdao Municipal Government, the Centre for International Cooperation in Work Safety, CACTPA, Qingdao Jinyitong Group and China-Africa Friendly International Company. The expo will showcase the trade and investment potential in Africa and the construction abilities of China among other benefits expected to be derived by participants. Mr Odame said Ghana-China trade volume reached $5.4 billion, with 56.60 year-on-year growth, much higher than the average of Africa-China growth rate, which stood at 19.3 per cent by the end of 2012. Investment opportunities Mr Odame mentioned oil and gas, resource-based activities in agri-business, agro-processing, wood processing, mineral processing, diamond and salt as some of the investment areas. Other areas of investment opportunities are in the real estate, hotel development and tourism information and communication technology services, general infrastructure, garment and textile manufacturing sectors. Mr Odame assured Chinese investors that the government had made available internationally competitive liberal incentives to ensure that foreign investments in Ghana yielded the right levels of returns. These, according to him, included tax holidays ranging from three to 10 years and a corporate tax of six per cent on export incomes, 25 per cent for hotels and 35 per cent for others. Ghana offers locational incentives ranging from 25 per cent to 50 per cent tax rebates aimed at an equal distribution of investment across the country.