20100921
africanews

Ghana's oil sector on Monday received a major boost when China agreed to invest $3 billion in that sector.

The Comprehensive Finance Project Facility is earmarked for the development of infrastructure, upstream, midstream and downstream of the country's oil and gas sector.

An agreement to that effect was signed in China between Ghana and the China Development Bank and was witnessed by Presidents Hu Jintao and John Evans Atta Mills.

The Director of Communications at the Presidency, Mr Koku Anyidoho, told the Daily Graphic via telephone from China yesterday that the facility was also to support Ghana's industrialisation, particularly the agro sector.

He said the facility was the phase one of many facilities, stressing that depending on how prudent it was used, China would activate "an open-ended clause in the agreement and allow for more support worth millions of dollars".

Mr Anyidoho said during bilateral talks, China agreed on a 100 million Yuan grant facility and also donated medical equipment in support of the fight against malaria.

He said China had offered a $250 million buyers credit to support the Kpong Water Works to ensure clean potable water for communities in the country.

Additionally, he said, the government had signed a $150 million Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to support the e-Governance project, stressing that both leaders agreed to forge a new partnership for mutual advancement of the two nations.

President Mills left Accra on Saturday for a state visit to China and Japan as part of efforts to strengthen bilateral ties with the two Asian economic giants.

As part of the trip, the President, who was accompanied by a high-powered government and business delegation, held bilateral talks with his Chinese counterpart, President Hu Jintao.

Among other things, the President would meet with officials of the Chinese Development Bank, attend a forum organised by the bank, visit Shangai Construction Corporation and interact with the Ghanaian community, as well as African Ambassadors, in that country.