Vice President Dr Mahamudu Bawumia has lauded the Chinese government for its support and cooperation towards flushing out Chinese nationals engaged in illegal mining activities (galamsey) in the country.

He emphasized that the Chinese Embassy in Accra was supportive to Ghana and hoped that the cooperation would be continued in the supreme interest of both countries.

The Vice President gave the commendation when he interacted with the media attending the Global Partnership for Sustainable Development Data (GPSDD) Press Fellowship to Ghana, underway in Accra.

Organised by the GPSDD in partnership with the Ghana Statistical Service (GSS), eight Journalists selected from Ghana, Senegal, Kenya, United States and the United Kingdom are attending the four-day Data4SDGs fellowship, sponsored by the United Nations Foundation.

The press fellows earlier questioned the Vice President on the cooperation of China in fighting the menace as his government flushed out Chinese illegal miners in the country.

Reacting, Vice President Bawumia said fighting illegal mining in the country, though had become politically costly to his government, it had no other option considering the devastating impact it was making in the country.

This, the Vice President said was large because illegal mining activities were seen as a source of socio-economic livelihood of most Ghanaians engaged in the practice.

Engineer Michael Sandow Ali, the Head of Mining at the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) said the country made huge headway in its fight against illegal mining.

Dr Claire Melamed, the Chief Executive Officer of GPSDD, said her organisatiion was established in 2015 to support and promote the use of data to achieve the United Nations SDGs.