Ghana's minister commends China's support to development agenda

ACCRA, Dec. 31 ( Xinhua) -- Kwabena Duffour, Ghana's Minister of Finance and Economic Planning, on Wednesday commended China for its continuous support to Ghana's developmental agenda.

Duffour also appealed to the Chinese government to consider and approve Ghana's applications for concessionary loans for the implementation of projects in critical areas of the economy, including health, roads, railways, water and agriculture.

He was speaking at the signing of two different agreements, a grant and an interest-free loan, between Ghana and the People's Republic of China in Accra.

The agreements, which consist of a grant of 60 million Yuan (8.8 million U.S. dollars) and an interest-free loan of 40 million Yuan (5.9 million dollars), are to enhance the Technical Co-operation between the two countries.

Duffour initialed the agreements for Ghana whiles the Chinese Ambassador to Ghana Yu Wenzhe signed for his country.

Duffour said the agreement symbolizes a further deepening of the cordial bilateral relations between the two nations.

He said the agreement also reflects the growing bilateral co-operation between the two countries, based on mutual respect and the increasing economic and political influence of China in global affairs.

He said economic and bilateral relations between the two nations date back to the early 60s and have ever since, grown from strength to strength, adding that, development asssistance to Ghana had also increased tremendously in the past few years.

Duffour said the provision of grants and interest-free loans to Ghana by China has become an annual ritual, since Ghana has continuously received these facilities for the past fifteen years.

He said earlier in May this year, China extended an amount of 20 million Yuan (2.9 billion dollars) and 10 million Yuan (1.5 dollars) as a grant and interest-free loans respectively to Ghana.

He said China's development assistance to Ghana since 2006, including those disbursed and those in respect of which agreements have been signed, to talled around 650 million dollars.

Yu pledged his country's continuous assistance to Ghana for her development agenda.