Ross Sheil, Staff Reporter
AKUFO-ADDO
A GHANAIAN delegation led by President John Kufuor arrived yesterday in Jamaica for bilateral talks with Prime Minister P.J. Patterson and inspections of the bauxite alumina sector.
In an interview with The Gleaner, Ghanaian Foreign Minister Nana Akufo-Addo said his country had just signed an agreement with aluminium producer Alcoa, and wanted to learn more by inspecting their Jamaican operations.
The visit, he said, would also renew historical ties between Jamaica and Ghana where some Jamaicans, including the Marley family, have now settled. Ghana, he added, was also looking to promote its tourist industry and could learn from what he called Jamaica's "developed industry".
In power since 2000, Mr. Kufuor's administration prioritised economic stability, but Ghana simultaneously said Mr. Akufo-Addo, needs to become a producer of finished goods rather than raw goods.
"We have substantial bauxite reserves and it has been a great expectation of our people for these to be fully exploited so that we would have an integrated bauxite alumina industry," he said.
Referencing Ghana and Jamaica, Mr. Akufo-Addo stressed developing countries must learn to live within their economic limits. "In our parts of the world we have an unnatural situation where most borrowing goes to the government which is why interest rates are so high and business starved of investment ... We have had to rationalise economic activity and withdraw government from direct economic activity," he said.
The Ghanaian delegation will visit Alcoa's Jamalco alumina plant in Halse Hall, Clarendon.
