Kumasi, April 22, GNA- The Columbia University's Millennium Cities Initiative (MCI) and the Kumasi Metropolitan Authority (KMA), launched the first West African Cities Investment Guide for Kumasi at the weekend.

Code named "Invest in Ghana: Focus Kumasi," the guide was to help revive the enormous investment potentials of the Ashanti Region and make it an attractive investment destination, especially for direct foreign investment.

The document, which also forms part of a broader investment promotion drive, is supported by United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD, United Nations Industrial Development Organisation (UNIDO) and the Ghana Investments Promotion Council (GIPC). An investment desk and a business advisory centre would be set up at the KMA as an interface for public-private dialogue. Nana Asampong Boakye, Asamponghene of Kumasi, launched the guide on behalf of Otumfuo Osei-Tutu II, the Asantehene. Nana Boakye said the document would help market investment opportunities in Kumasi in the areas of Cocoa and fruit processing, tourism, hospitality facilities, pharmaceuticals and mining among others.

He said on the regional market scene, Ghana was one of the 15 members of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) and one of the African Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) States that received preferential treatment from the European Union (EU) and called on investors to take advantage of such opportunities and do business in the country.

Opening the Kumasi Investment's Day, which coincided with the launch, Mr Kwaku Agyeman-Manu, deputy Minister of Trade, Industry, Private Sector Development (PSD) and President's Special Initiative (PSI), commended the MCI and KMA in their effort to reverse the low trend of foreign direct investment in the region to stem rural urban migration. He said the strategy to move investment to the doorstep of all the ten regions of the country to ensure expanded trade would be a better means for job creation and poverty reduction.