Accra, Aug 29, GNA- Vice President John Dramani Mahama on Monday reiterated government's commitment to re-open the defunct Kumasi Shoe Factory before the end of this year.

He said investors from the Czech Republic who had at the close of last year expressed interest in revamping the factory to produce boots for the country's security personnel and beyond, and also produce sandals for students.

Vice President Mahama announced this when Mr Peter Bossman, the first Ghanaian to be elected as the Mayor of Piran city in Slovenia, an Eastern European country sandwiched by Italy and Croatia, called on him at the Castle, Osu.

The Kumasi Shoe factory which was established by the then Czechoslovakian company during the first republic, took a nose-dive in the 1970s resulting in unemployment and redundancy. The Vice President expressed the desire to collaborate with Slovenia t= o address the alarming sanitation and other health related challenges in Ghana. He commended him for the feat in becoming one of the few Black African= s to take up such higher positions in Europe and urged him to conduct himself as a good Ambassador of Africans in the diaspora. Mr Bossman said he would use his position to woo Slovenian Investors t= o undertake numerous projects in Ghana.

He said his city, is a coastal tourists area and he would take advantage of that to mobilize expertise for the development of Ghanaian tourists attractions in the coming years.