Exploit commitment of two govts to advantage: President Mukherjee urges public, private sectors
The President of India, Mr Pranab Mukherjee, has urged Ghanaian businesses to diversify their exports to his country in order to deepen the volume of bilateral trade between Ghana and India.
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He said although the $3-billion trade volume was in favour of Ghana, entrepreneurs could forge closer collaboration and exploit the potential in other projects and sectors, adding that the Indian government was looking forward to working with officials from Ghana to identify new areas for exploitation, particularly under India’s capacity-building and project support fund for Africa.
Mr Mukherjee was addressing the Ghana-India Business Forum co-hosted by the Association of Ghana Industries (AGI) and its Indian counterpart, the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), in Accra last Monday.
The Indian President, who arrived in the country last Sunday for a three-day visit, is the first sitting President of India to have visited Ghana.
“During the third India-Africa Forum Summit in New Delhi in October last year, India earmarked $10 billion for diverse projects in Africa and capacity-building efforts. The government of India looks forward to working with Ghana to identify projects for the utilisation of these funds in Ghana,” Mr Mukherjee said.
While recognising the participation of Ghana’s political leadership in India-Africa partnership events, he called on the public and private sectors of both countries to take advantage of the desire and commitment of the two governments to deepen their mutual economic stakes.
Mr Mukherjee also paid glowing tribute to Ghana-India relations which, he said, went beyond political ideologies and geographical space, saying that beyond extending grants to Ghana, India was ready to take the economic cooperation beyond government-funded projects.
Bilateral trade
Bilateral trade and investment between the two countries rose from $1 billion in 2012 to $3 billion last year, with a target to deepen it to $5 billion in the coming years.
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In 2014, Indian foreign direct investments (FDIs) crossed the $1-billion mark, with the highest number of projects registered.
Ghana’s exports to India are mainly gold, cocoa and timber, with gold accounting for about 81 per cent of the exports.
India, on the other hand, exports pharmaceutical and agro products, inputs and equipment, plastics, electrical products, cereals and ICT hardware and software to Ghana.
India also has a large industrial base in Ghana cutting across the agricultural, pharmaceutical, plastic, restaurant and trading sectors.
Foreign minister
The Minister of Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration, Ms Hanna Tetteh, in an address, said the $5 billion bilateral trade target should be approached more ambitiously with closer collaboration between the private sectors in both countries to push the frontiers.
She called on Indian and Ghanaian businesses to go beyond the modest small-scale investments through EXIM Bank financing and explore other models such as equity financing to include Public/Private Partnerships (PPPs), saying, “We need to be more innovative than we’ve been.”
She also urged businesses in the country not to fret about the upcoming elections but go ahead and make their investment decisions “because irrespective of what the outcome of the elections is, there will be peace, stability and continuity because those are things we value and are committed to as a government and a people”.
The AGI
The President of the AGI, Mr Asare Adjei, said Indian companies had always been part of Ghana’s industrial evolution and contributed immensely to the local economy, adding that the high-level cooperation among the political leadership of both countries also paved the way for synergies and cooperation.
Indian companies have a large and long-time representation on the AGI and serve on its council. Indian foreign investments in Ghana registered the highest number of businesses in the last two years and India was the ninth country in value terms.
The AGI President urged closer collaboration between the private sectors of the two countries to explore various spheres such as manufacturing, agriculture, real estate, steel and renewable energy.
The event also had a business-to-business match-making to explore business relations.