Accra, July 2, GNA - The first factory under the President's Special Initiative (PSI) on Textiles and Garments was inaugurated in Accra on Friday.

The 1.2 million dollars T-Shirts, Trousers, Fabric and Garments factory under Belin Textiles International Limited (BTIL) is also the first Ghana-Mauritius partnership company established to export goods to the US under the Africa growth Opportunity Act (AGOA) Initiative.

President John Agyekum Kufuor and the visiting Prime Minister and Head of Government of the Island of Mauritius Sir Anerood Jugnuath, who is on a four-day state visit to Ghana jointly inaugurated the factory after unveiling the plaque.

President Kufuor said Ghana and Mauritius had become partners in development in the spirit of the African Union (AU), NEPAD and South-South Corporation.

He said such co-operation should be the vehicle through which developing countries should aspire to join the mainstream of globalisation.

President Kufuor said under the World Trade Organisation (WTO) developing countries were now developing the muscles to compete with developed countries therefore, such co-operation between developing countries was ideal.

"Ghana will team up with Mauritius to learn as fast as possible through partnership and leap-frog into the mainstream of development", he said.

President Kufuor announced that another company from Mauritius had expressed the desire to invest about 100 million dollars in sugar production in the Northern part of Ghana.

He said the symbolic inauguration of the factory was the first step in practical terms that the partnership between Ghana and Mauritius was being contracted.

Sir Anerood said the establishment of the factory was the fruit of the hard work that Ghana had undertaken to transform the country into an industrialised nation.

He said it was the textile industry, which formed the basis for Mauritius to diversify her economy and with her knowledge and experience in the industry Ghana could benefit substantially from their partnership.

Sir Anerood commended the Mauritius partners in the company for their entrepreneurial spirit and adventurism to accept to invest in Ghana. He was optimistic that other entrepreneurs in Mauritius would emulate the example of their counterpart and relocate in Ghana for the textile industry in Ghana to flourish like in Mauritius.

Mr Berty Fong, the Mauritius Managing Director, who owns about 49 per cent shares in the company said he decided to invest in Ghana because of the congenial atmosphere and the investment potentials in the country. Mr Robert Paapa Cudjoe, the Ghanaian Executive Chairman, who owns 51 per cent shares in the company, appealed for the establishment of a Ghana-Mauritius Chamber of Commerce to further strengthen the economic co-operation between the two countries.

He announced that the Company was negotiating with the Dutch Government through DANIDA for an expansion programme that would include screen printing of their products.

The Executive Chairman said negotiations were also underway with the Netherlands Government for the establishment of a fertilizer blending plant at Takoradi before the end of the year.

Mr Cudjoe said the Company was negotiating with Courts of the United Kingdom a home furnishing and electrical appliances company to become their retail outlet in the West African Sub-Region.

The factory with a workforce of about 200 began trial production in August, last year, currently produces 3,000 T-Shirts a day as against a target of 6,000 T-shirts a day an equivalent of about 100,000 T-shirts a month and about 20,000 trousers a month. 02 July 04