He said Kumasi occupied a very important place in Ghana\u2019s development\n for which reason the UK would continue to put the city\u2019s development in\n focus. The United Kingdom High Commissioner to Ghana, Mr Iain Walker, has pledged the UK government\u2019s support to the Kumasi Metropolitan Assembly (KMA) to make Kumasi a leading industrial hub of West Africa. He said Kumasi occupied a very important place in Ghana\u2019s development for which reason the UK would continue to put the city\u2019s development […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":2348,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_post_source_name":"","_post_source_url":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[61,43],"tags":[1648,12487,6850,5754,13052,9306,7455,2244,10661,9331,3862,10484,11606,11538,2419,12354,4981,192,2597,373,12502,2264,12634,6825,610,8995,10954,9343,13014,9750,618,2990,4331,7903,10342,10742,12134,4317,12178,11081,10302,3805,12273,8383,5807,244,10329,9313,12605,10412,3080,5981,10415],"class_list":["post-2347","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business","category-local-news","tag-africa","tag-agenda","tag-aid","tag-airport","tag-akufo","tag-appeal","tag-ashanti","tag-ashanti-region","tag-bekwai","tag-city","tag-climate-change","tag-convention","tag-democracy","tag-digital","tag-euro","tag-finance","tag-gbc","tag-ghana","tag-ghana-beyond-aid","tag-ghana-beyond-aid-agenda","tag-ghanaians","tag-government","tag-health","tag-hospital","tag-iain-walker","tag-infrastructure","tag-international","tag-investment","tag-job-creation","tag-kejetia","tag-kejetia-market","tag-komfo-anokye-teaching-hospital","tag-kumasi","tag-kumasi-airport","tag-law","tag-market","tag-mce","tag-metropolitan","tag-osei-assibey","tag-pharmaceutical","tag-plant","tag-president","tag-real-estate","tag-revenue","tag-risk","tag-south-africa","tag-trade","tag-trafficking","tag-uk","tag-uk-government","tag-united-kingdom","tag-west-africa","tag-work"],"blocksy_meta":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2347","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2347"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2347\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2348"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2347"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2347"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2347"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
Mr Walker said this when the UK and the Ghana government \nsigned a new strategic partnership agreement focusing on six economic \nareas of mutual benefits under the UK-Ghana Business Council (UK-GBC).
The\n agreement, which was signed after a regional business forum in Kumasi, \ncovers six sectors, namely agribusiness, extractive, garment\/textile, \ndigital, pharmaceutical and financial service.
It is under three themes made up of domestic revenue mobilisation, ease of doing business and infrastructure.
Signatories<\/strong>
The Metropolitan Chief Executive (MCE) of Kumasi, Mr Osei Assibey Antwi, and Mr Walker signed for their respective countries.
The\n forum focused on the Ashanti Region where the UK government had \nsupported some major projects, including the Kejetia Market, the \nexpansion of the Kumasi Airport and the construction of Bekwai Hospital.
Currently,\n the UK is also helping to complete the 47-year-old abandoned maternity \nblock of the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital (KATH) with a credit \nfacility of 140 million Euro.
Under the framework, the forum was \nto build a shared understanding of priorities on economic development, \njob creation, trade and investment.
Mr Walker expressed \nexcitement that the two countries were talking about practical steps to \nexpand their frontiers from “government to government, to regional as \nwell as to the municipal levels.
Partnership<\/strong>
The\n KMA boss said the assembly would welcome UK commercial partners for \nupcoming projects to develop high risk parking facilities, international\n convention centres and real estate properties in and around the city.
He\n said the agreement tied into the Ghana Beyond Aid agenda of President \nNana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, which was being vigorously pursued.
“The\n relationship between Ghana and the UK is rooted in a long-standing \neconomic, political and cultural connections, their shared values and \ndeep links between their people,” the MCE said.
He said with \nabout half a million Ghanaians based in the UK , and UK businesses \noperating in Ghana, there was the opportunity for the UK and Ghana to \nwork to promote democracy, good governance and the rule of law to \ncounter any transnational threats such as climate change and narcotics \ntrafficking.
Appeal<\/strong>
Mr Antwi appealed to \nthe UK government to assist in providing more lorry terminals and also \nput up a multi-storey compartment in Kumasi to help decongest the city \ncentre.
He also touched on the establishment of factories in \nKumasi, saying, “Kumasi has grown to an extent that some factories which\n hitherto were providing employment have now become defunct and need to \nbe reactivated.”
He called for support in that area as well as \nan appeal to the UK to help set up a diagnostic plant in the health \nsector to reduce the number of Ghanaians travelling to South Africa to \nseek such medical care.
The MCE said the aim of the relationship \nwas to help Ghana manage its natural resources in such a way that it \nwould be able to finance its projects without being over-reliant on \nexternal assistance.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"