Register your businesses - Chinese investors urged
The Minister of Trade and Industry, Mr Haruna Iddrisu, has asked all Chinese investors in the country to register their businesses with the Ghana Investment Promotion Centre (GIPC) as part of requirements to freely operate in the country.
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He also urged them to regularise their stay with the Ghana Immigration Service (GIS) to avoid deportation for illegally residing in the country without the necessary permits.
Mr Iddrisu made the call in Accra when the Chinese Ambassador to Ghana, Mr Gong Jianzhong, paid a courtesy call on him at his office in Accra.
“The government has no intention of harassing Chinese nationals doing genuine business in the country”, he said, adding that “all that is required of them is to ensure that they follow the right procedures to regularise their stay to avoid confrontations with the law enforcement agencies”, he added.
His assurances comes at a time when some Chinese nationals are being deported from the country for either illegally residing in the country or engaging in illegal business activities, including small scale mining which is a sole preserve of the Ghanaian locals.
According to Mr Iddrisu, the laws of the land are clear and needed to be enforced but noted that “we are aware of the enormous contribution of many more Chinese nationals who have set up business and are doing well and helping to promote the growth of our economy”.
Against this background, the Trade and Industry Minister urged the Chinese Ambassador to use his good offices to prevail on the recalcitrant ones to abide by the laws of the country.
On the retail business in the country, he said the retail business “is the sole preserve of Ghanaians and, therefore, what I can encourage you to do is to also ask your nationals to go into wholesale businesses, using Ghanaians as their partners to ensure a win-win situation”.
Mr Iddrisu said Ghanaians were genuine business people just as the Chinese, and expressed the hope that collaboration would bring enormous benefits to them while ensuring peace.
He said his ministry would continue to work with the Chinese Embassy to ensure that trade between the two countries was enhanced for the mutual benefit of their people.
Mr Iddrisu expressed his gratitude to the government of China for the $3billion loan facility, which he said would enhance the lives of Ghanaians when all the projects envisaged were completed.
He further requested a thorough investigation into the allegation that some Ghanaian traders were denied visas to do business in China, and said this would help deepen and promote the harmony and understanding that had seen the growth of bilateral relationships in a win-win situation.
Mr Jianzhong reaffirmed the commitment of the Chinese government to deepen ties between the two countries.
“There is the need for the two countries to strengthen and enhance bilateral relationships that could benefit the two countries and we should not allow the cultural and language differences to be a stumbling block to our efforts”, he said.
Story: Charles Benoni Okine