Ghana is one of China’s key trading partners on the African continent, Chinese ambassador to Ghana Wang Shiting said on Wednesday.
Delivering a keynote speech to open the third China Trade Week (CTW) event, Wang said China places a very high value on the bilateral trade relationship with the West African country.
“With the effort of the Ghanaian government to develop the manufacturing industry and the Chinese government to expand import, trade between the two countries is growing towards a more balanced and sustainable direction,” the ambassador said.
Last year, bilateral trade between China and Ghana registered 7.25 billion U.S. dollars, making it the seventh-largest trading partner of China in Africa.
Ghana’s export to China also increased significantly by 31.8 percent to 2.44 billion dollars in 2018 to maintain a two-digit annual performance since 2010, except in 2016.
The three-day CTW, in its third year, opened with a wide array of Chinese businesses mounting exhibition booths at the Accra International Conference Center.
Ghana’s Minister for Business Development Ibrahim Awal Mohammed said the CTW fell in line with the government’s program of industrialization, hence its endorsement of the fair.
“Ghana intends to make industrialization one of the key pillars of our economic development. I am happy Ghana is the seventh trading partner of China in Africa,” Mohammed said.
He added, “We cannot continue to export only our raw materials to the world. We want to add value. That is why Ghana and China should cooperate.”
“China is reputed to be very good at manufacturing. Chinese businesses should, therefore, partner their Ghanaian counterparts to help make Ghana the hub of manufacturing in West Africa,” the minister said.
