Accra, April 13, GNA - The City Hotel in Kumasi is to be rehabilitated and upgraded into a first class facility, Finance Minister Yaw Osafo-Maafo has said.

The project would be undertaken by the Ghana Libya Arab Holding Company (GLAHCO) under a joint partnership similar to that of Golden Tulip in Accra.

Mr Osafo-Maafo was briefing newsmen at the Kotoka International Airport on his return from Tripoli, Libya, where he attended board meetings of GLAHCO. He also attended a conference on financing for development in Paris, France.

On the trip with him were Mr Eric Okai and Mr Dominic Donkor, both directors of GLAHCO.

Mr Osafo-Maafo said final feasibility report and financing arrangement would soon be commissioned for the project.

He said government was working to settle out of court a case surrounding the acquisition of the City Hotel property and also for the removal of all legal bottlenecks.

The Minister said he also held series of meetings with top management of the Libya-Arab Foreign Bank and that the bank has agreed to participate in the financing of cocoa purchasing activities of the Ghana Cocoa Board.

The bank also agreed to establish a joint ventureship with one of Ghana's state banks to finance the private sector, especially, export oriented and agro processing companies.

He said the Chief Executive of the Libya-Arab Foreign Bank is expected to visit Ghana to finalise negotiations for the transaction. Mr Osafo-Maafo said he met with the Managing Director of the Libya African Airline and that the carrier has agreed to extend its operations to Ghana in the course of the year.

The Paris meeting which brought together over 55 counties, 35 Ministers from emerging markets, donor agencies including, the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, discussed how to mobilise additional resources using innovative financing approaches to help poor countries meet their millennium development goals by 2015.

He said the meeting agreed that donor agencies needed to move faster to increase the predictability of aid, harmonise procedures, as well as support the priorities in poverty reduction strategies.