Prez Mahama, Chinese President to hold talks on CDB loan

President John Dramani Mahama and the Chinese President are to hold bilateral talks in August to, among other issues, iron out the sticky points that have held back the disbursement of the China Development Bank (CDB) loan to Ghana.

"I am going to China at August ending and one of the issues to be discussed will be the CDB loan of which the proposed landing beaches project are a part," he told members of the Standing Committee of the Western Regional House of Chiefs at the Flagstaff House yesterday. 

At a meeting with the committee members, President Mahama expressed the hope that his visit to China would result in the signing of the landing beaches agreement and some other projects to be financed from the loan.

The chiefs were at the Presidency to discuss matters relating to the development of the region.

CDB loan 

Part of the CDB loan, which is targeted at the transformation of infrastructure and other key projects in the country, has been on hold for almost three years now, although key points in the loan agreement have been finalised.

At the recent presentation of the mid-year budget statement to Parliament, the Minister of Finance and Economic Planning, Mr Seth Terkper, said the ministry would, in due course, seek Parliament's approval to reduce the loan from $3 billion to $1.5 billion.

Western Region 

In cocoa production, gold mining and oil and gas production, the President said, the Western Region stood high, adding, "It is only natural that the government pays attention to infrastructure development there."

President Mahama mentioned the Takoradi Port, the road network, schools and water projects as some of the areas where substantial work continued to be done in the region.

He said funding for the second phase of the Takoradi Port expansion had been secured and very soon the financing agreement would be signed.

"It is going to expand the port to many times its original size to make it handle more volumes than it has done in the past," he said, adding that about 5,000 direct jobs and 10,000 indirect jobs would be created.

President Mahama said plans were also in place to build more thermal plants in the Aboadze enclave to take advantage of the gas reserves.

Railways 

On the Takoradi-Kojokrom railway line project, he said the train engines and wagons had been ordered.

When completed, it would make Sekondi-Takoradi one of the unique communities in Ghana with a reliable intra-city rail system, he said.

He further stated that a number of offers for the financing of the Western railway line from Sekondi-Takoradi to Awaso had been received.

Challenges 

Although the President indicated that there were many good things happening in the Western Region, he was quick to admit that there was still a lot of work to do, one of the most critical being the road network.

To address the problem, he said, the government was going to invest about $750 million within the next three years on a major road project in the country.

Leader of delegation

In his remarks, the Leader of the delegation of chiefs, Nana Kwesi Agyemang IX, commended the President for the many good things his government was doing in the Western Region.

Nana Agyemang, who is the Paramount Chief of the Lower Dixcove Traditional Area, said the Western Regional House of Chiefs was solidly behind the gas project, in spite of the court case between one of their colleagues and Ghana Gas Company.