Mrs Ozlem Ergun Ulueren (3rd from lef) in a pose with Mr Oppong Nkrumah (3rd from right). With them are Nana Ama Dokua Asiamah-Adjei and Pius Enam Hadzide, Deputy Ministers of Information on the right and the Chief Director of MOI (2nd left)

Ghana also wants to have more trade going into Turkey – Oppong Nkrumah to Turkish Ambassador

Enoch Darfah Frimpong Business News Mar - 19 - 2019 , 19:14

Ghana believes in trade cooperation but just as a lot of trade from Turkey is coming into Ghana, “we also want to have a lot of trade going the other way as well,” Mr Kojo Oppong Nkrumah, the Minister of Information has told the new Turkish Ambassador to Ghana.

Speaking on Tuesday during a courtesy call on him by the new Ambassador, Mrs Ozlem Ergun Ulueren, Mr Oppong Nkrumah said unfortunately, out of the about $400million Foreign Direct Investments (FDIs) by Turkey in Ghana, which has been planned to be scaled up to a billion, a lot of it is trade coming from Turkey into Ghana.

He said Ghana would want to see the FDI going towards the industrialisation sector as part of the Ghana Beyond Aid agenda introduced by President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, and therefore urged Mrs Ulueren, to consider working towards cooperation in the industrialisation sector.

“We are looking at industrialisation and so we are looking at seeing more FDI also coming into the industrialisation space,” Mr Oppong Nkrumah said.

Industrialisation

“It is safe to say that a lot of it [$400million] is trade or FDI coming to sectors that, you find as interesting as agriculture and tourism, and they are also very important sectors to us,” [but] “the president has led us to champion a new vision, the Ghana Beyond Aid which also means that among other things we should focus on being self-reliant. And one of the areas we are looking at, apart from agric and tourism is industrialisation, and Turkey has done pretty well in that space as well and so we would be looking to see a lot more Foreign Direct Investments also coming into the industrialisation space where we have the opportunity to add value to a lot of our agric based products, that are grown across the country,” the Minister said.

Welcoming Mrs Ulueren to his office, Mr Oppong Nkrumah reiterated the tremendous relations between Ghana and Turkey which has been ongoing since the 1960s and said: “I think last year when we had the opportunity to engage with your predecessor, we mentioned the fact that we should explore ways by which we can also open up the Turkish markets to some of the very beautiful Ghanaian products, traditional exports, cultural products as well, and that can also have expression in Turkish markets, and from Turkey as a hub into the entire sub region. So, that is one thing that we would want to work with you, keenly on.”

Capital market

“As the Ghanaian economy is resurging, our capital markets are also booming, and we have a lot of interesting capital market products that investors from all over the world would like to put money in.”

“It would be lovely to have Turkish investors pay attention to it and put some good money into those capital market products since there is a lot of safety associated with it,” he added.

Turkish Ambassador

Mrs Ozlem Ergun Ulueren who was recently posted to Ghana as Turkish Ambassador and was at the Ministry of Information to introduce herself said Ghana and Turkey have had bilateral relations since the 1960s although the Turkey Embassy in Accra was closed in the 1980s and reopened in 2009, both countries continued to work closely.

She said Turkey was determined to be a development partner of Ghana as its construction companies have invested more than half a billion in Ghana and also see many other opportunities to enhance cooperation in the Ghana Beyond Aid.

“I believe that long term commercial relations can only be established on a mutual basis so I believe that as there are a lot of opportunities for Turkish products in the Ghanaian market, same way there are more opportunities for Ghanaian products in the Turkish market,” she said.

“In other to increase our bilateral trade volume, we need to keep regular meetings of businessmen in both countries. We have several businessmen associations, who particular focus on bilateral cooperation in all sectors, not only trade…, so I believe that in the coming months, we will be able to work further," she said.

Writer's email: enoch.frimpong@graphic.com.gh

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