Tema, (Greater Accra) 19 July '99,

President Jerry John Rawlings has cut the sod for work to start on the Business Focus (BF) Tema Export Processing Zone (EPZ) at Kpone, near Tema.

The BF Tema EPZ, being developed by the Business Focus Group of Malaysia, will be the first private sector-built export processing zone enclave in Africa.

The EPZ enclave will be completed in six phases, with manufacturing concerns like electronics, computer components, food processing and furniture. Others are automotive components, instrumentation, housing and building materials and steel fabrication.

President Rawlings said the BF Tema EPZ is the first of many such enclaves that the government intends to develop to boost export sales to establish Ghana as a major industrial and commercial hub in the West African sub-region.

He noted that the co-operation between the BF Group of Malaysia and Ghana is a practical demonstration of the concept of South-South co-operation which, he said, should not be allowed to remain a mere catch phrase.

At the sub-regional level, the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) offers great potentials in the drive to attract mass direct foreign investment, he stated.

ECOWAS has therefore intensified its efforts to get its partners to implement fully all their (ECOWAS) protocols, which hopefully will establish a big market for industries that will be attracted into the EPZ enclave.

President Rawlings said Ghana expects industrial operators in the enclave to introduce quality products, rely on most efficient methods of production, and offer employment, improved skills and work ethics that will spill over onto the domestic economy.

He thanked the World Bank for assisting to secure an IDA funding for the off-site infrastructure and the BF Group for its confidence in Ghana.

Mr John Abu, Minister of Trade and Industry, said the mission of the Ghana Free Zone (GFZ) Board is to help make Ghana the gateway to Africa by creating an attractive and conducive environment for attracting domestic and foreign direct investment.

Mr Abu disclosed that the GFZ board has to date licensed 71 free zone companies, out of which 46 are fully operational as single-factory free zone enterprises, while the rest are waiting to start production in the Tema enclave.

He said some of the sub-sectors covered by the activities of these companies, which currently employ 5,000 people, include rubber/plastic products, beauty and skin care, coconut fibre extraction, pharmaceuticals, warehousing and telecommunications.

The ownership of these enterprises reside in investors from Ghana, USA, Lebanon, South Africa, China, United Arab Emirates, Britain, Australia, Canada and Germany, among others.

Dato Amin Shah Haji Omar Shah, Executive Chairman of the BF Group, explained that Ghana is the excellent gateway to West Africa, saying it is endowed with political stability, practising democratic governance, and has a liberalised economy and a well-defined investment code.

He noted that Ghana is geographically positioned within access to a total market of around 250 million people, and said the BF Tema EPZ can cater for manufacturing and business concerns to deliver products for export market in the Americas, Europe, Africa and Oceania.