Juapong, May 14, GNA - The business atmosphere in Juapong has started coming alive following the commissioning of the Volta Star Textiles Limited last Friday by President John Agyekum Kufuor.

About two years ago the business community in that town went into coma with the closure of the then Juapong Textile Limited (JTL), the main mover of business activities in the community.

A number of small-scale business operators told the Ghana News Agency (GNA) at Juapong that they had been holding their breaths ever since the JTL closed down and expressed the hope that the new factory would not go the way of its predecessor.

Mr William Addo, whose Dorisco Company deals in wood and building materials, said prospects for business looked bright and prayed that the Volta Star Textiles Limited would not end up as the erstwhile JTL. Madam Margaret Okyere, a wholesale supplier of waste cotton used for making pillows, said she got her supplies from Akosombo following the closure of the JTL that she rationed to pillow makers in Juapong and its environs.

Mr Samuel Nkrumah, an accountant at the North-Tongu Rural Bank at Juapong, said the bank had lost a lot of business with the closure of the JTL but the situation had started to pick-up as news about the new factory started filtering in. He said the bank's Susu savings scheme, which involved mainly small-scale traders that nose-dived with the JTL, was coming alive again.

Mr Nkrumah said business looked to pick-up appreciably with the return of many people who had deserted the town.

Mr Kelvin Kofi Amesimeku of King's Crown, a mobile phone and gifts shop operator, said many people who left town with the closure of JTL have started coming back with the news about the new factory. Madam Afi Yiborku, Proprietress of "The Only Sisters Chop Bar", was equally optimistic that the new factory would usher in a return to the good days associated with the old factory.

Mr Evans Agyagbo, Technical Officer of the new factory, said the factory was now undertaking "build up work" prior to full production. He said the factory has the capacity to process 450,000 metric tones of cotton a year with a workforce of about 800. For now the factory has taken on 300 mainly experienced workers, Mr Agyagbo said.

Regarding how the factory proposes to deal with the current power situation in the country, Mr Agyagbo said it was a national problem that the company hoped to get around by procuring a power generating plant. He said the factory has taken on "state-of the art" machines from the JTL days and that where necessary the factory would retrofit and innovate.

The erstwhile Juapong Textiles Limited, now Volta Star Textiles Limited has for a long time been the flagship industry of the Volta Region until the commissioning of the Diamond Cement at Aflao. 14 May 07