By A. B. Kafui Kanyi
Accra, Dec. 07, GNA – China is to invest more resources in Ghana and other developing countries as it journeys towards becoming a modernised socialist country.
This is in line with its policy of promoting common development and dedication to building a human community with a shared future.
Mr Lu Kun, the Chinese Ambassador to Ghana, said this at a media briefing on the recent 20th Communist Party of China’s (CPC) National Congress on the theme: “A Chinese Plan to Modernisation benefiting the World”.
He said, the CPC, formed some 100 years ago, was leading the Chinese people of all “ethnic groups” in a concerted effort to realise the Second Centenary Goal of building China into a great modern socialist country in all respects, especially in championing development and peace.
The country was also creating a new form of human advancement with investments in road infrastructure, health, telecommunications and education in developing countries.
The support is through bilateral financial arrangements at the Governmental level and private sector investments.
“Just as an Akan proverb says, ‘All fingers are not the same,’ Chinese modernisation differs from the old path of war, colonisation, and plunder taken by Western countries and provides a new option for developing countries to achieve modernisation and for mankind to explore a better social system,” the Ambassador said.
He said, for instance, in Ghana, China had started work on the second phase of the construction of the University of Health and Allied Sciences (UHAS) in Ho, the Jamestown Fishing Port and the Foreign Affairs Ministry Annex project among a host of others, and stated the country’s commitment to bringing developing countries along its new journey.
China is Ghana’s largest trading partner and major source of investment, with bilateral trade volume ranking among the highest in Africa.
From January to October 2022, bilateral trade reached nearly 8.6 billion US dollars, up 10.2 per cent year on year.
Since the beginning of this year, China has aided Ghana’s Polytechnics, Technical and Vocational Training Centres’ Upgrading Project.
Five infrastructure projects under the Master Project Support Agreement between the Ghanaian Government and Sinohydro are also ongoing.
China has the highest number of citizens with non-citizen Ghana Card with a total of 34,712 cards issued to Chinese in Ghana, being 22 per cent of the 161,007 citizens from 202 foreign countries.
Ambassador Kun said China remained Africa’s largest trading partner for 13 consecutive years and that in 2021, the bilateral trade volume reached $254.3 billion, up 35.3 per cent year-on-year, hitting a record high.
The Ambassador said by 2020, Chinese companies had invested more than $43 billion in Africa, covering highway, electricity, telecommunications and ports projects.
“Chinese companies have helped African countries build and upgrade over ten thousand (10,000) kilometers of highway, thousand and eight (1008) bridges, one hundred(100) ports and many large-scale power plants, hospitals and schools, have boosted economic growth, increased tax revenues, created jobs and improved people’s lives, bringing tangible benefits to the African people. “
He said having eradicated “absolute poverty” and done building a moderately prosperous society – the First Centenary Goal -, China’s Second Centenary Goal, under the leadership of the CPC, would ensure the “modernisation of a huge population of common prosperity for all, of material and cultural-ethical advancement, of harmony between humanity and nature and of peaceful development.”
He said through that journey, China would remain committed to its foreign policy goals of upholding world peace and promoting common development with a shared future.
“China stands firmly against all forms of hegemonism and power politics, the cold war mentality, interference in other countries’ internal affairs and double standards,” the Ambassador said, emphasising that, “China will never seek hegemony or engage in expansionism.”
The Ambassador said China was striving to create new opportunities for the world with its own development and to contribute its share to building an open global economy that delivered greater benefits to all people.
The Asian giant was committed to working with other countries to foster an international environment conducive to development and create new drivers for global growth.
It had, therefore, proposed the establishment of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank and the New Development Bank to fast track development and signed more than two hundred (200) documents on the Belt and Road Cooperation project with one hundred and forty-nine (149) countries and thirty two (32) international organisations.
He said as human society faced unprecedented challenges, China stood ready to work with the international community to implement the Global Development Initiative and join forces to meet all types of global challenges.
Answering questions on the negative conduct of some Chinese nationals, especially those engaged in Galamsey, Ambassador Kun said China did not condone lawlessness both at home and abroad.
He consequently advised those visiting Ghana to be law abiding and respect Ghana’s religious and cultural values.
As there were miscreants in every society, the Ambassador said, a small number of the Chinese population in Ghana were giving the majority a bad image.
He dismissed speculations that China wanted to destroy Ghana’s cocoa production through illegal mining to give an edge to it to grow cocoa in commercial quantities.
The Chinese soil and climatic conditions did not support the thriving of the cash crop, which is the backbone of Ghana’s agricultural economy.
GNA