Eastern Regional Minister Helen Adjoa Ntoso says the region is ready to welcome foreign nationals that come with the aim of contributing towards the development of the area through humanitarian donations and investments.

She said many communities in the region lack basic amenities and due to poverty, many of the youth are involved in illegal mining and other social vices which often lead to their untimely death.

Ms Ntoso stressed that her outfit would cherish any group of people who would create employment opportunities for the youth.

The Regional Minister was speaking in Koforidua on Friday when members of the Lansing Regional Sister Cities Commission called on her to brief her on their activities in the region.

The Lansing Regional Sister Cities Commission is a group from the Lansing City of Michigan in the USA, which has established a relationship with the Akuapem South District to promote development in the area.

The Chairperson of the Commission, Ms Barbra Roberts Mason, appealed to the Regional Minister to take personal interest in the projects that they are undertaking to ensure their sustainability.

Mr William L. Brewer, a member of the Commission, said almost all the money that the Commission used to fund its projects was from donations and so the donors often like to come to see what their contributions had been used for.

He appealed to the Regional Minister to facilitate joint ventures and partnership between businessmen in Michigan and their counterparts in region.

Briefing the Regional Minister on its activities, the Coordinator of the Commission, Mr Kissiedu Okae, said it had established a library at Nsawam which is stocked with books worth $2 million and had distributed 200 desktop and laptop computers to some schools in the Akuapem South and the Nsawam –Adoagyiri Districts.

He said the Commission had also established a scholarship scheme for needy but brilliant students and had organised refresher courses for teachers to help improve teaching and learning in the two districts.

Mr Okae said the Commission had provided an ambulance for the Kom Health Centre at Aburi, and constructed places of convenience for many communities.

It also helped to rehabilitate the Kom and Pokrom Health Centres at Aburi and Nsawam.