A two-member team of United Nations Industrial Development Organisation, (UNIDO) consultants has met with the executives of Suame Magazine Industrial Development Organisation at Suame Magazine in Kumasi. The purpose of the meeting dealt with extensive discussions with SMIDO particularly in the areas of promoting business investment co-operations and common facility support to Suame Magazine as part of the Millennium Cities Initiative.

According to the UNIDO consultants, Kumasi has been chosen among six cities in Africa as part of the Millennium Cities Initiative by United Nations to be developed into advanced cities comparable to their counterparts in the Developed world.

The Consultant to SMIDO, Mr.Nyaaba-Aweeba Azongo, took the team through the SMIDO Development policy blueprint sponsored by the DANIDA-USAID-DFID BUSAC Fund. He emphasized that no Development plan for Kumasi would be feasible without specifically targeting Suame Magazine which he described as the ?growth pole? to propel the rest of the economic sectors of Kumasi and Ghana through horizontal and vertical linkages.

He said the SMIDO project could change the face of Kumasi and impact positively on the development fortunes of Ghana and West Africa.

Miss Ginger Baker member of the UNIDO delegation from the Colombian University, USA and a member of the MCI team said they were impressed by the fact that SMIDO had gone ahead to research and ranked the development challenges of Suame Magazine. She provided a comprehensive and intellectually sound argument and conceptual framework through which Suame Magazine could be developed. She commended SMIDO for the remarkable achievement and assured the executives of SMIDO of their support to strengthen the relationship between UNIDO and SMIDO.

On his part, Mr. Umesh Menon assured SMIDO that he would facilitate technical partnerships for SMIDO members to benefit from Workshops and Technological Transfer Programmes between Indian clusters and SMIDO .He encouraged SMIDO executives to visit India for ?there is a lot to enrich your current initiative which I find very interesting, he emphasized. He also gave his assurance to promote SMIDO given the credible evidence they had shown and the capacity demonstrated towards the development of Suame Magazine Cluster.

Mr. Menon requested a profile of enterprises of Suame Magazine to serve the purpose of their inter investment partnership promotion.

Mr. George Asamoah Amankwah urged Mr. Umesh to facilitate ties between UNIDO and SMIDO as they have a common objective of Industrial Development to support the Industrial Village Project being embarked upon by SMIDO with the acquisition of a 1000 acre land at the NKawie District.

Representatives of the associations present at the meeting were the Fuel Injection Pump Mechanical Association, Condemn Car Dealers Association, Electrical Welders and Fabricators Association, Ghana Haulage Transport Owners Association, Kumasi Scraps Dealers Association, Suame Foundry Workers Association and the Dynamic Spare Parts Dealers Association.