The French Chamber of Commerce and Industry in Ghana (CCFG), which seeks to support, foster and enhance bilateral trade between Ghana and France, has been inaugurated at a ceremony in Accra.
The chamber, which is made up of companies and professionals belonging to different sectors, provides a platform for business networking, as well as enhances financial and investment relations and exchanges between the two countries.
It also seeks to assist the high and increasing number of French companies that have established and/or wish to establish their businesses in Ghana, as well as the increasing number of Ghanaian companies interested in French products and/or hope to enter the French market.
The chamber comprises companies from the banking, insurance, energy, telecommunications, agri-business, automobile, logistics and service sectors.
Bilateral trade
In his address at the inaugural ceremony, the French Ambassador to Ghana, Mr Frederic Clavier, said the inauguration would raise even higher the bilateral trade estimated at $1.7 billion between the two countries.
He noted that already, there were 60 French companies doing business in the country in the various sectors and was confident that the number would increase.
Mr Clavier observed that high-value contracts had been signed in such areas as the supply of electrical equipment, oil services, fibre optics, mobile and information systems.
He added that there was still the need for more Ghanaian investments in France and the creation of more ventures between Ghana and France.
The French Ambassador was happy to note that economic and commercial exchanges between the two countries had dramatically increased during the past 14 years, adding that France was the fifth supplier and the tenth client of Ghana.
He commended the country for the enabling economic, financial and business climate, saying, �France has confidence in the political course, power of democracy, quality of the elite and the economic future of Ghana, which is one of Africa�s engines of growth.�
The President of the CCFG, Mr Patrick Prado, stressed the importance of proposing various services to potential members of the chamber, leading global companies, small and medium-scale companies and entrepreneurs.
He said that would help them create more businesses, and urged more companies to join the chamber to add dynamism to the French-Ghanaian community.
Ghanaian economy
Inaugurating the chamber, the Vice-President, Mr Kwesi Bekoe Amissah-Arthur, said the challenges the Ghanaian economy were experiencing were short term.
He said the medium and long-term performance of the economy would engender fast growth which would be to the mutual benefit of the country and its business partners.
Mr Amissah-Arthur, therefore, invited investors to participate in the great future of the country, saying, apart from benefiting from the fast-growing Ghanaian economy, investors stood the chance of participating in the economies of sister countries of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS).
He explained that the ECOWAS bloc presented a large market for investment which could be compared to the European Union when conditions were created for businesses to thrive.
The Vice-President pointed out that the inauguration of the French Chamber of Commerce had come at an opportune time and would deepen the co-operation between the two countries for fast economic growth.
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