Ashanti Regional Minister deepens cooperation with Guangxi in China

Ashanti Regional Minister, Dr. Frank Amoakohene, has held high-level talks in Nanning, China, with Wei Tao, Chairman of the People’s Government of the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region.

The engagement provided an important opportunity to deepen cooperation between the Ashanti Region and Guangxi, particularly in trade and investment, industrialisation, agriculture, education, science and technology, healthcare, tourism, culture and green development.

Dr. Amoakohene said discussions also touched on opportunities arising from the high-level engagements between President John Dramani Mahama and President Xi Jinping, to explore direct trade and payment arrangements between Ghana and China using the Ghana cedi and the Chinese renminbi, reducing reliance on third-party currencies such as the US dollar and associated transaction costs.

He highlighted notable examples of Ghana-China cooperation, including the Bui Hydroelectric Dam, Sunon Asogli Power Project, Huawei’s telecommunications and digital technology investments, Zonda/Sinotruk vehicle assembly, and the Sentuo Oil Refinery.

Of particular interest to Ashanti, he said, is the Confucius Institute at KNUST, established through collaboration between KNUST and China’s Hubei University of Automotive Technology. Beyond Chinese language and cultural education, the partnership presents opportunities for academic exchanges, engineering research, technology transfer and industrial collaboration.

With Ashanti’s population of approximately 5.43 million and Guangxi’s population of over 50 million, Dr. Amoakohene said the opportunities for mutually beneficial collaboration are enormous.

The engagement was also attended by some Metropolitan, Municipal and District Chief Executives (MMDCEs). The two sides look forward to building direct partnerships between the various assemblies in Ashanti and some of the 41 cities in Guangxi to facilitate knowledge exchange, local economic development and mutually beneficial projects.

“Our vision is to build a practical and enduring partnership that translates international friendship into tangible economic and social benefits for our people,” Dr. Amoakohene said.

He expressed gratitude to His Excellency Wei Tao and the Government and people of Guangxi for the warm reception and their commitment to strengthening relations with the Ashanti Region.

“Our ambition is clear: to transform friendship into opportunity, cooperation into investment, and partnership into shared prosperity,” he concluded.

By Edem Mensah-Tsotorme