Accra, July 11, GNA - Heineken, the majority shareholder in Ghana Breweries Limited (GBL), is to open a state of the art Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Centre in Kumasi to run a Master of Science Degree programme in computing from September.

This was announced when a 12-member delegation led by Mr Jean van Boxmeer, Executive Director of Heineken, called on Vice President Aliu Mahama at the Castle, Osu.

Professor Maarteen Looijen, the Consultant developing the project, said the two-year programme, which would start with holders of Bachelor of Science Degree, would be business-oriented to make industry to benefit.

He said the first year of the programme would be dedicated to 16 state of the art ICT models, while in the second year students would do their internship with business concerns and industries up to eight months before they would write their thesis.

The ICT Centre would also run middle level and other courses in computing to make workers more competitive on the job market. Dr Kwame Donkor Fordjour, Acting Chairman of GBL, said a building valued at 30 billion cedis had been acquired for the programme, adding that issues relating to accreditation and other relevant modalities were being sorted out.

Vice President Mahama welcomed the announcement and commended Heineken and GBL for being good corporate citizens with commitment to their social responsibility.

He said GBL had contributed a lot to support education in Ghana and was also supporting the Tourism Sector.

Vice President Mahama urged Heineken to explore investments in fruit processing, which had very good prospects.

"I was in the Central Region recently and I saw a lot of citrus going to waste. The people there are anxious to receive investors to make use of their produce," he said.

The Vice President also commended GBL for using maize and sorghum in the production of beer saying it had created jobs for many poor people.

He, however, appealed to the Company to consider increasing the cereals content in beer, which was now 25 per cent. Mr C. O. Nyarnor, Chairman of the Divestiture Implementation Committee, also asked Heineken to invest in fruit processing because its market potential was bright.

Mr Alan Kyerematen, Minister of Trade Industry and the President's Special Initiatives, said Heineken's long-term commitment to doing business in Ghana was a good testimony that should attract other investors.

Mr Ishmael Yamson, Chairman of Unilever, Ghana, said the business climate in Ghana was very congenial, adding, "the government is open and sensitive to the private sector than any other that had ruled Ghana". He said at a recent meeting in London, many investors praised the government for its goodwill towards the private sector adding that it was a positive signal.

Mr Yamson said, however, that the government could not solve all the problems affecting businesses in Ghana overnight, but it had made a good beginning.

Mr Boxmeer described his five-day visit as a discovery journey. He said the stable political climate was good for business and his company was satisfied with its investments in Ghana.

GBL posted an impressive performance in the half-year ending June 30, 2003 with turnover growing by 59 per cent.

The company, which hitherto had suffered losses due to consistent fall in the value of the cedi and huge payment of financial charges to its creditors, made a gross profit of 8.1 billion cedis as against 2.2 billion for the same period last year.

Heineken recently invested 12.5 million dollars in GBL.