Cape Coast, Aug. 30, GNA - Mr. Masamichi Ishikawa, Japanese Ambassador to Ghana, on Tuesday expressed satisfaction with the progress of work on the reconstruction of the Mallam/Yamoransa road. The 87 million-dollar road reconstruction project, which is being sponsored by the Japanese government, is scheduled to be completed in March 2007.

Mr Ishikawa, expressed his satisfaction when he paid a courtesy call on the Central Regional Minister, Mr. Isaac Edumadze after inspecting the road to ascertain progress of work.

"I am very impressed about the work done so far on the first phase of the road, the section completed is very beautiful," he said.

Mr. Ishikawa said his government "was proud" to be part a of the development of Ghana and assured the nation of the needed assistance. He however, expressed concern that there was a land acquisition problem with regard to the second phase of the project, which involves reconstructing the road from Winneba Junction to Yamoransa, and was hopeful that it would soon be resolved to enhance the completion of the project on schedule. Mr. Edumadze, for his part commended the government of Japan for the reconstruction of the road and gave the assurance that everything would be done to resolve the land acquisition problem to ensure the early completion of the second phase of the road.

He said the Region was endowed with a lot of natural resources and hoped that the Japanese government would invest in areas like salt mining, small-scale irrigation and tourism and gave the assurance that the government had created the requisite environment for investors. The Minister also commended the government of Japan for helping with the cancellation of Ghana's debt and its assistance through JICA.