China is to provide 1,000 bore-holes for Ghanaians in five out of the 10 administrative Regions at a cost of $12.0 million.

An agreement to that effect was signed between the Chinese Ambassador to Ghana, Sun Baohong and Minister for Finance, Seth Terkper.

Ms Sun said the project would help to reduce water borne diseases, support women and children and help improve conditions for industry and businesses.

“The feasibility investigation for this 1,000 bore-hole project was conducted by Chinese experts one year ago. After signing the exchange of notes, the project will kick-start pretty soon and I wish it would be carried out in a smooth manner,” she said.

Ms Sun expressed the hope that the China-African Summit to be held in South Africa next month would open a new chapter for China-African cooperation.

Mr Terkper said the support was very important because Ghana access to grants and concessional financing is going down because of the country’s status as a lower middle income country.

“So we want to thank you and we look forward to the realization of project, as you said to promote not just safe drinking water but improvement in the health conditions of our people, thank you,” Terkper said.

China has been at the forefront of supporting Ghana through grants and concessional facilities as well as loans to build the Bui Dam; rehabilitation of the Kpong Water station and the gas processing plant.

Mr Terkper said Ghana was in the process to establish an Infrastructure Fund and an EXIM Bank to help accelerate the pace of infrastructure development and to prop up Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs).