Minister says Ghana supports French intervention in Mali

ANKARA

Ghana's Foreign Affairs & Regional Integration Minister Muhammed Mumuni has said that Mali crisis was not only a problem for Mali and Africa, but also a threat for the world security.

"We should not sit back and think that it is an African problem or Malian problem. It is a world problem, it is a threat for world security. Therefore, I support the position that France took 100 percent and thanked them on the behalf of Mali, on the behalf of Africa," Mumuni told AA correspondent on Wednesday in an exclusive interview.
Mumuni stated that they believed that France had not acted alone.
"Other countries have put some support. France is not acting in isolation, France is acting with the partnership of ECOWAS, in partnership with African Union," he said. 
Noting that the northern Mali has recently becoming a hub for Islamist fundamentalists, for extremists, for drug barons, Mumuni said, "These people are using it as a launch pad to attack other nations. Therefore, it is extremely important that Malian situation should be seen not only as a Malian problem, not as an African problem but also as an international confrontation. Therefore the world should get together and unite and take collective action to remove criminal networks, fundamentalists from the northern Mali."
Touching on Turkey-Ghana bilateral relations, the Ghanaian minister said that the relations between both countries could be developed in many areas. 
"In our country we have a lot of business opportunities, we are country with oil, which is at a low level, hoping to develop it. And there is also a huge infrastructure deficit, we need to construct a lot of roads, bridges, ports, railways. Turkey has track record in terms of civil works and construction. We believe that Turkish businesses and finances can complement our efforts in our country," Mumuni said.
Mumuni stated that Turkey was getting respect from African countries in terms of being mediator on international disputes and humanitarian aid.
"We see Turkey as an important globe player in terms of international relations, especially the settlement of international disputes. We see that Turkey has the interest on the commitment of the difficult issues across the world. Somalia was an important case. The international community totally forgot about Somalia, they said Somalia had come to a dead end until Turkish Prime Minister Erdogan decided to take his family and members of the government to go to Mogadishu. Turkey has honor in Africa, especially in the humanitarian catastrophe, hunger etc.," the minister said.
Speaking about Turkey's policy on Africa, Mumuni recalled that the African Union had declared that Turkey to become Africa's strategic partner.
Mumuni said, "Turkey's business people are flocking into our countries. In Ghana for instance, the volume of trade and the investment has increased tremendously and we believe a lot more to come".

Turkish economy minister was pleased with trade volume between Turkey and Ghana

Turkish Economy Minister Zafer Caglayan said that he was pleased with the trade volume between Turkey and Ghana which increased to 550 million USD in 2012 from 290 million USD in 2010.
Our target is to increase this figure to one billion USD within the next two years, said Caglayan who spoke at Turkey-Ghana Trade & Investment Forum in Istanbul on Wednesday.
Caglayan said that there were important opportunities for Turkish businessmen in Ghana in energy, oil, natural gas, food, agriculture, defense industry and construction sectors.
Caglayan also said that the trade volume between Turkey and African countries reached 20 billion USD in 2012.
Noting that Turkish contractor sector undertook 245 billion USD of projects in the world in the past ten years, Caglayan said that 45.5 billion USD of those projects were undertaken in Africa.
Turkey received more than 120 billion USD of direct foreign investments in the past nine years, said Caglayan, adding that 80 Turkish companies made investment in Ghana worth of 60 billion USD.
Turkish businessmen made more than 20 billion USD of investment in the world so far, said Caglayan.
Noting that Turkey attached great importance in Africa, Caglayan said that Turkey had only 12 embassies in Africa nine years ago, adding that this number increased to 31 today.

Ghana's president calls for foreign investments in his country

Ghana's president has called on Turkish entrepreneurs to invest in Ghana, saying the government was making efforts to ease business start-ups.
"We want to see more investments in diverse fields in our country including the petro-chemical sector. Two Turkish companies have declared interest in oil and gas production. And I would like to assure you that we will make that process definitely easier," John Dramani Mahama told Wednesday a Turkey-Ghana Trade and Investment Forum in Istanbul.     
Mahama said his country's gold mining sector also offered lucrative business opportunities, adding that Ghana was the 9th biggest gold producer in the world.
"We can find plenty of gold if you dig deep enough. We have made major investments in the sector recently and we have an annual production of 80 tons," he said.   
Mahama said private sector was the engine of economic growth in Ghana, adding that the country was the 10th fastest growing economy in the world and the sixth in Africa in 2011 with a 14 percent growth rate, adding that growth projections for 2013 stood around 9 percent.    

Ghana has "such a divine investment climate"

Ghanaian Trade Minister Hannah Tetteh has said, "We want to increase our 2.200 megawatt power generating capacity to 5.000 megawatt."

Speaking at the Turkey-Ghana Trade and Investment Forum on Wednesday, she said Ghana was the only place to think about when investing and added, they work in the scope of benefiting from what two countries present to each other. 
Tetteh said, among African countries in 2011, Ghana was one of the fastest growing country and economy.
Tetteh referred to the statements of Ghanaian President John Dramani Mahama who said their target was a 8 percent of growth in Ghana annually.
Tetteh expressed, "In the past decade, we have been the second largest economy in western Africa. We created such a divine investment climate in our country. We have democracy and do not have problems with violence. Your money will be always safe in Ghana. We are a country who invested in education."
Tetteh stressed that they want their economy to grow 8 percent annually and noted, "We need to increase our infrastructural investments and increase our 2.200 megawatt power generating capacity to 5.000 megawatt because we have a vision of becoming an independent power producer. We will not be able to develop our economy if we do not invest in aerodromes and infrastructure."