SADA seeks strategic partnership with Chinese investors
A delegation led by the Minister for Special Development Initiatives, Hon Mavis Hawa-Koomson, and the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Savanna Accelerated Development Authority (SADA), Mr Charles Abugre, is in China, ahead of the visit of Vice President, Dr Mahumudu Bawumia.
The visit is a follow-up to various areas of cooperation aimed at attracting Chinese investments into the catalytic projects identified in the SADA zone Master Development Plan, which the authority has been developing over the past two years.
The delegation will be working to attract investments into various projects, including those in the cotton and textiles, livestock, the construction of the Pwalugu Multipurpose Dam in the Upper East regions, the industrial parks and special economic zones in Wa, Bolgatanga, Tamale and Buipe.
It will also woo investors to invest in a commercial north-south highway that aims at making the movement of goods and people faster, cheaper and safer.
Mr Abugre told the GRAPHIC BUSINESS that the delegation had also been marketing an aquaculture centre in Dembai, the construction of the Buipe Inland port and waterfront city and the modernisation of Tamale, among others to the Chinese investor community.
He said the projects have all been designed as commercially viable and will aid the development of the SADA zone and the economy as a whole.
SADA Cooperation Framework
In 2015, SADA developed a framework document to foster its cooperation with China for the development of the Savannah zone of the country.
The document, the ‘China-Ghana for SADA Cooperation Framework,’ draws from the 10-point plan of the China-Africa Cooperation framework announced at the China-Africa Summit in November 2015.
The 10-point planning, covering agriculture, industrial development, infrastructure, education and health and cultural cooperation, among others, follows the Chinese government’s ‘Belt and Silk Road’ strategy for international cooperation.
Based on that framework document, SADA now seeks to leverage its unique relationship with the International Cooperation Centre (ICC) of the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) to help improve the lot of the zone and its people.
The NDRC is known as the Super-Ministry of China. It is the gateway for all Chinese government related financing, whether it is through banks such as the China Development Bank (CDB) or Exim Bank or through Chinese companies (most of whom are government related) as investment capital.
Without the blessings of the NDRC, such financing is always not possible.
The NDRC is also the home for the implementation of the One Belt, One Road strategy pioneered by President Xi Jinping.
The ICC of the NDRC has responsibility for all international cooperation in relation to the Belt and Road strategy.
The SADA delegation will, therefore, meet with the ICC of NDRC to concretise the emerging collaboration.
The SADA CEO said the delegation also planned to meet with a number of Chinese companies, including construction company, CITIC, which built the Bird’s Nest Olympic stadium; SinoSure, the national insurance agency; Goke, the company that has 60 per cent of the market share of the livestock industry in China; and the Chinese
Academy of Agricultural Sciences.
The SADA delegation will also be following up on the planned textiles project with the China National Textiles and Apparel Council (CNTAC) and the Agricultural Design
Academy of the Ministry of Agriculture, among others he added.
He said the meetings are expected to pave the way for a successful mission of the vice president. –GB