Ambassador of China to Ghana, H.E Sun Baohong
The Ambassador of the People’s Republic of China to Ghana, Ms Sun Baohong, has pledged to work hard to improve the existing relations between her country and Ghana.
She, therefore, asked the Ghanaian media to collaborate with her to deepen south-south co-operation in Ghana.
“Bear in mind that despite our level of development, China is still a developing country for which reason Ghana and China have a lot in common to share in defining the policies and programmes that would bring about prosperity for the peoples of the two countries,” she said.
Madam Sun said this when she paid a courtesy call on the Editor of the Daily Graphic, Mr Ransford Tetteh, at his office in Accra.
Accompanied by the Head of the Political Section of the Chinese Embassy in Ghana, Mr Yu Jie, she was conducted round the newsroom of the Daily Graphic.
Interacting with manager in the newsroom she appealed the media to project activities of Chinese institutions in Ghana in their reportage.
That, she said, would help in engendering mutual understanding and trust between the peoples of the two countries and also enhance mutual co-operation.
While expressing satisfaction about the level of co-operation between the two countries, she said it was time for the peoples of the two countries to take the relationship between them to a new level, saying the mediashould take up that responsibility.
Ms Sun said she was not happy about the scanty information on China in Ghana and that some media houses in Ghana sometimes published information about China that was not accurate, saying, however, that this development should not impact the understanding between the two countries.
The Embassy of China, she said, operated an open-door policy and, therefore, entreated journalists to feel free to contact the embassy, in order to put out informed publications.
She said the Chinese government, under a number of co-operations with Ghana, had undertaken projects for the benefit of the people of Ghana.
Among them were the completion of a vocational training school in Accra, which would soon be inaugurated, installation of solar-powered streetlights in parts of Accra, the provision of an Information and Communication Technology (ICT) laboratory in Ho, supply of books, school bags and footballs to schools as well as the donation of food items, and sewing machines to communities in the Ashanti and Brong Ahafo regions.
She said another deal had been signed under which the Chinese government was providing seventeen 25-seater buses to Ghana, saying the Chinese authorities were waiting for their Ghanaian counterparts to conclude certain protocols for the delivery of buses, the construction of the Cape Coast Stadium and support for the University of Health and Allied Sciences in Ho.
Ms Sun said the Chinese government was sponsoring the construction of the Kotokuraba market in Cape Coast and also the upgrade of the Kpong Water System that would supply more water to Accra.
She said it was not easy for Chinese firms to undertake such projects in foreign countries but they were doing well, saying those projects were of great significance to Ghana.
Already, she said, experts had arrived in Ghana to hold discussions with Ghanaian authorities on the construction of 1000 boreholes that President John Mahama mentioned in his State of the Nation Address, adding that a scholarship and training scheme had been instituted for Ghanaian students to study in China.
The other key areas that the Chinese government was co-operating with Ghana, she said, were energy, infrastructure, construction and agriculture.
Mr Tetteh said stories about China should not only be driven by events but the quest to provide information that would bridge the information gap between the two countries.
The Editor of the Daily Graphic stressed the need to renew and review the arrangement between Graphic and Xinhua News Agency, to ensure that the Daily Graphic was fed with more stories directly from the Agency rather than depending on Western sources saying “I think that we can make amends”.
Mr Tetteh was grateful to China for the support it had been extending to Ghana in the area of skills training and expressed the hope that the cordial relationship would grow even stronger.
The Business and Foreign Editor of the Daily Graphic, Ms Kate Baaba Hudson, said although Graphic would like to use stories about China directly from sources in China, “We are constrained sometimes, especially when stories delayed because we also have to meet timelines”.
Source: Daily Graphic
