$56.7m Invested In First Quarter

A total of $56.7million worth of investments accrued to the nation within the first-quarter of the year, resulting in the establishment of 36 new projects.

This comprises $34.7 million in foreign direct investment (FDI) and $22 million in local investment in the economy.

The projects comprise 24 foreign-Ghanaian joint ventures and 12 wholly foreign projects which are estimated to employ about 1,282 Ghanaians and 103 foreigners.

According to the first-quarter results from the Ghana Investment Promotion Centre, the figure compares favourably with the 2001 and 2002 figures of 32 projects estimated at $15.9 million and 26 projects amounting to $11.7 million respectively.

This indicates that investments into the economy are picking up from the slowdown experienced in 2001 and 2002 as a result the adverse effects of world events especially, the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Centre.

The service sector got the chunk of the investment with a registration of 15 projects, valued at $49.7 million.

This was followed by the manufacturing sector with nine projects, estimated at $3.3 million, while tourism recorded five projects with a capitalisation of $1.3 million.

The agriculture and building construction sectors registered four and two projects, with an investment capital of $11.1 million and $120, 000 respectively.

GIPC has since 2000, re-assigned and implemented a programme to transform its promotional strategy from a general approach to a specific firm target promotion, directed at production centres in Europe and Asia.

The objective of the programme is to attract firms which seek to exploit the local and sub-regional markets by adding value through the processing of natural and agricultural raw materials using the country as a base.

As a result of this programme, the centre has to date recorded a total of 510 projects valued at $351.2 million, made up of $297.9 million in FDI and $53.4 million in local currency.

These investments comprise 341 joint foreign-Ghanaian and 169 wholly foreign-owned enterprises which are estimated to generate employment opportunities for about 22,001 Ghanaians and 1,618 non-Ghanaians. Foreign capital transfers in respect of the minimum required by the law amounted to $66.1 million.

The major source of foreign investments into the economy are Great Britain, with 148 projects, India 136 projects, China, 131; USA, 108; Lebanon, 103, and Germany, 93 projects.

Others are Korea, 59; Italy, 55, The Netherlands, 52 projects; Switzerland, 49 Canada, 32, and France, 29 projects.

FDI from developing countries come from Nigeria, which has 40 projects; South Africa, 26, and Malaysia 12, projects.