Ghana and Libya have signed a trade pact which will allow for the export of $100m worth of Ghanaian goods annually to that country. Areas to be covered include agro products, fruit juice processing, fresh fruits, lumber and tuna.

Hon Kofi Konadu Apraku, Minister of Trade and Industry, disclosed this at the 42nd Annual General Meeting of the Ghana Employers Association in Accra on Thursday. He said a lot of investment opportunities existed in Libya and promised that the government was doing everything possible to ensure that exporters took advantage of it.

Apraku said the government’s investment drive was yielding fruitful results. Already, plans had been concluded for a Chinese company to build a paper industry in the Western Region,” he said.

The Minister was quick to point out that government’s efforts at attracting investments would come to nothing if local investors did not offer the needed matching capital. The government is eager to provide opportunities for people who have the technical know-how and capital capabilities to partner with foreign investors to ensure the sustained growth of the economy,” he stated.

The Minister of Manpower Development and Employment, Mrs Cecilia Bannerman, said that government had made in-roads in its desire to lower the costs of doing business especially for local entrepreneurs seeking to start or expand their businesses in areas such as agriculture, service and manufacturing. She however, appealed to private sector operators to upgrade their existing technologies and to support local research.