Kpone, April 18, GNA - President John Agyekum Kufuor on Friday performed the ceremony to mark the formal commencement of work on a 560-megawatt Sunon Asogli Kpone Power Plant Project, a private sector initiative to complement Government's efforts at ensuring energy security.

Phase One of the project is scheduled to be completed by the end of the year and this would add 200 megawatts of power to the country's generation mix. Already, access roads have been constructed and 920,000 cubic metres of excavation works done for the take-off. Vice President Alhaji Aliu Mahama and Professor Daniel Adzei Bekoe, Chairman of the Council of State, were among those present at the ceremony.

The Thermal Power Plant is the direct benefit from the visit to China by Togbe Afede XIV, Agbogbomefia of the Asogli State, in 2006 during which he succeeded in getting Shenzen Energy Group Company Limited and China-Africa Development Fund to buy into the project. President Kufuor said it was a good example of public/private partnership that the Government was promoting to accelerate the pace of the nation's socio-economic development.

He said encouraging private sector participation in power generation was part of the strategy they were pursing to enhance sustained energy supply. The President said it was his hope that more investors would be attracted to the sector to enable the country to meet the energy requirement of the fast expanding economy and growing population.

President Kufuor, who commended Togbe Afede for the initiative, said his presence was to affirm the importance of the project to the economy. He urged Ghanaian workers at the plant not just to be interested in the salaries that would come to them but more importantly, they should learn from the Chinese work ethics and know-how.

The construction phase of the project would provide jobs for about 1,000 Ghanaians. Togbe Afede said the Company was determined to be an integral part of the solution to the country's energy problem. He said they wanted to see Ghana become a net exporter of power. Mr Li Bing, President of Shenzen Energy, said the project was evidence of the increasing economic-cooperation and trade between Ghana and China.