Industry captains charged to deepen ties with Houston

The Minister of Trade and Industry, K.T. Hammond, has charged captains of industry in Ghana to deepen ties with Houston to help create a robust environment, resilient enough for bilateral trade and economic growth.

“We must ensure we sell the trade and commerce potential of the country to the outside world.

Houston is into almost all sorts of things from cutting-edge industry, culture, trade, commerce, pharmaceuticals and science and technology.

 I am proud of this relationship and I want it to be strengthened.

 Those at the political level will do our best but I charge you the captains of industry in Ghana and commerce to do your best and make this forged relationship with the industry and leadership of Houston a lasting and a beneficial legacy for Ghana and Houston”.

Mr Hammond made the call at a luncheon with the Mayor of Houston, Sylvester Turner and a 30-member business delegation in Accra last Monday.

 The event, held on the theme: “Developing the Ghana-Houston Partnership for Economic Growth”, brought together members of the American Chamber of Commerce (AMCHAM) Ghana and businesses from the City of Houston to deepen discussions and relationship to scale up for economic growth.

 The minister further called on investors to explore the numerous investment opportunities in Ghana.

 He described Ghana as a country with a beautiful political atmosphere conducive for business to thrive, adding that “we have the platform so we invite all investors to come and invest here.

 We in Ghana pride ourselves to be the best that Africa can put on exhibition, we have the best ambience to do business, the human resource capacity, appropriate legislature and we have put together the best that any investor will be happy to have.”
 

New economic 
opportunities

Mr Turner, who is on an eight-day visit to the country to explore new economic opportunities, said the purpose of his visit is to strengthen the ties between Ghana and Houston on multiple front.

 “We recognise the importance of the African continent because we view it as the new model, new frontier, a new future of where we are all heading.

 The whole goal is to strengthen the relationship and once we establish the relationship, business can follow.

But it is important that we build on the relationship,” Mr Turner said.

 He said, “Houston has a very large African population which adds to the vibrancy of the city and a part of my representation of being in Africa is to make sure that we go to the countries that many of these persons come from.

 It is our hope that when it comes to trade, we can increase what we are doing in trade.”

 The Mayor of Houston explained that in 2022, trade between Ghana and Houston was around $293 million which may sound huge, however, a lot needs to be done to increase it.

“So we believe there are a lot of synergies between Houston and Ghana that we want to build on and it needs to be a win-win relationship where there are mutual benefits,” he added.