By Mawutodzi K. AbissathThe wisdom of our African ancestors is reflected in this proverb which says: “A child who has never travelled before says only his mother knows how to cook delicious soup.”
Do you know that after over 50 years of independence, it is now that some Ghanaians are waking up to the realization that, besides America and Britain, there are other countries in the Eastern world where mankind can progress and advance scientifically and technologically?
It is no other country than China that brought this realization to some 30 Ghanaian contractors who visited that country recently. To be precise, on May 1, 2009, a 30-member delegation of the Association of Road Contractors of Ghana (ASROC) embarked upon a two-week Trade and Investment Mission to Shanghai and Beijing, China.
The investment mission, the first of its kind in the history of the Association was under the patronage of the Ministry of Roads and Highways and the Ministry of Trade and Industry and was co-sponsored by the Business Development Services Fund.
Without exaggerating, almost every member of the delegation, described trip to China as “life time experience.” Others say it was an eye-opener for them.
One of the wonders of China is the Great Wall. There is no way one can vividly describe the Great Wall which is said to have been built over 2000 years now. And the mountains on top which the large thick walls were constructed defile imagination.
Construction Equipment
One principal reason the Ghanaian contractors embarked on the trade and investment mission to China was to see at first hand, the kind of construction equipment available in China and how they could obtain some credit facility from the Ex-Embank of China to enable them to purchase such equipment for their members to do efficient job to contribute their quota to the economic development of mother Ghana.
The first manufacturing company visited was the Shanglin Company Limited at Shangzhou, Jianggsu, China. Mr Spencer Bao, Deputy General Manager of the company led the team to inspect a large stock of machinery being manufactured by the company. These include wheel loader, motor grader, road roller, backhoe loader, Crane Truck, Paver, Concrete Mixer, Vibratory Roller and many more.
During business meeting session with the delegation, Mr Bao expressed the desire to do business with Ghanaian contractors so that they can elevate the standard of road construction industry in their country.
Mr J.Twumasi-Mensah, the National Chairman of ASROC spoke for the delegation when he said that they were overwhelmed by the various types of construction equipment they saw. He said the Ghanaian contractors were highly impressed by the quality of the company’s products and the cost of such quality equipment which he described as “very, very moderate” as compared with what pertains in Ghana.
“We road contractors in Ghana will like to do business with Chinese construction firms, he stressed.
Another factory the contractors visited while in China before the Minister for Roads and Highways, Hon Joe Gidisu came later was the Xuzhou Construction Machinery Group Co. Imp. & Exp. Ltd. (XCMG). That is the Zoomlion China.
This company was founded in 1989 and is now one f the leading construction companies in China with 26 factories to its credit. It employs over 20,000 workers ranging from ordinary cleaners to the best engineers, scientists and technologists in China.
Ghanaian contractors made history when for the first time, the Chairman of the XCMG, Mr Wang Min, who is also the Party Secretary of the ruling Party, spared a few minutes of his heavy schedules to propose a toast at a memorable lunch he personally held in honour of the Ghanaian delegation.
Again, the Ghanaian contractors were interested in seeing the types of equipment being manufactured by XCMG. Mr Xin Yu Min, Vice General Manager who later conducted the contractors round said some of the machinery produced include crawler crane, truck crane, hydraulic component, roller rand paver, excavator, wheel loader, grader, just to mentioned few. Once again the Ghanaian contractors could not believe their eyes that such quality construction equipment were being manufactured in China. They held spell-bound.
Talks with Chinese Transport Minister
Ghana’s Minister for Roads and Highways, Hon Joe Gidisu, on Monday, May 11, 2009, held bilateral talks with the Chinese Vice Minister of the Ministry of Transport, Mr Weng Mengyong in Beijing, China.
The Ghanaian Minister conveyed the appreciation of the President and people of Ghana to the President of the People’s Republic of China for various supports Ghana has enjoyed over the years, especially in the development of road and bridge infrastructure.
The Minister mentioned specifically the Achimota-Ofankor-Nsawam road and the Bui Hydroelectric dam as some of the current projects still ongoing. He said at least 10 Chinese contractors are working in Ghana on projects in the road sector funded by the Government of Ghana and others from other international financial institutions, including China.
Hon Gidisu informed the Chinese Minster that the purpose of the visit was twofold: firstly to support the private sector initiative of the Association of Road contractors in their deliberation with the Ex-Im Bank of China and to seek further areas of collaboration and support from the Chinese Government in the development of the Transport sector of Ghana, with focus on roads and bridges.
The Minister stated Ghana is seeking support for five prioritized areas for development, namely the Trunk road network to accelerate economic development; the interchange development programme in the major urban areas to reduce the consequential cost of urban congestion; technology transfer in the area of bridge designs; the bridge development programmes of the feeder road network to reduce the cost of transportation of farm produce to marketing centres and the human capacity development to upgrade the skills of engineers, planners and allied professionals.
Furthermore, the Minister pointed out that in the transport sector, opportunities for collaboration exist in areas of Development of the rail industry as well as Development of regional airports in the Aviation industry.
In the area of human capacity development the Minister mentioned the establishment of a Technical Training Centre in Ghana for the training of Ghanaian artisans including contractors.
The Ghanaian Minister stated that China has become a global role model for socio-economic and technological development for developing nations and beyond. He said Ghana has prepared a development programme in areas mentioned above and invites the Minister to study the said programme and create a platform for further discussions leading the two countries to identify areas of interest to the Chinese Government and subsequent investments.
Responding, the Chinese Vice Minister of Transport said within the last 30 years, China’s road infrastructure development improved from 1million km to 3.45million km with Motorway moving from 0 km to 56,000km.
He commended Ghana for her efforts to develop rural roads to link cities. He said when China started its development strategy; it had to collaborate with foreign investors for technology transfer. For this reason, he said the Chinese Government will collaborate with the Government of Ghana for development.
Mr Weng Mengyong observed that the large number of delegation Ghana brought to China is an indication that the Ministry of Roads and Highways attaches great importance to the road sector of the economy. “When you have roads, then you have riches,” said the Vice Minister.
He therefore suggested that a copy of the programme for priority areas for cooperation (road and bridges) should be submitted to his Ministry for study without delay. He said the China Road and Bridge Corporation and other institutions of technical training will be contacted to deal with specific areas of collaboration with Ghana.
Consequently the Minister called for the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding between the two Governments for further discussions leading to concrete action.
Ghana’s Minister’s team at the meeting was made of 20 members including four members of the Parliamentary Select Committee on Road Transport, headed by its Chairman, Hon Michael C. Boampong, MP, Bia Constituency, four executives of ASROC led its National Chairman, Mr J.Twumasi-Mensah, two other officials of the Ministry of Roads and Highways, two officers of Ghana Embassy in China as well as some Regional Chairmen of ASROC.
On the Chinese Minister’s side were seven other officials including two Deputy General Managers of the China Roads and Bridge Corporation. Later Hon Joe Gidisu met with the entire members of the ASROC delegation on the trade mission and shared some fruitful thoughts with them at their hotel in Beijing.
Meeting with Ex-Imbank President
One most important objective of ASROC mission to China which was achieved was the meeting with the President of Chin Export –Import Bank of China.
The Ghanaian Minister for Roads and Highways, Hon Joe Gidisu, Tuesday, May 12, 2009 led the executives of the Association and leading members of Parliamentary select committee on Road Transport as well as officials of Ghana Embassy in Beijing, China to hold preliminary talks with the President of the Export –Import Bank of China, Mr Li Ruogu, in Beijing, China.
Discussions centered on financial support for economic development in Ghana in general with particular focus on road transport sector.
Hon Joe Gidisu said the Ministry of Roads and Highways has planned to invest approximately US$800million for the maintenance and rehabilitation of its 67,189km of roads and bridges over the next four years. He said the annual investment required for the maintenance of roads and bridges in Ghana is about US$200 million. However, the development budget is about US$400m a year.
The Minister pointed out that his Ministry recognises also the need to provide work to contractors to enable them to have adequate turnover to cover the payment of their capital investment in equipment and other resources.
He said Government agenda in the road sector is to support the local road contractors in terms of capacity building as well as help them to acquire needed equipment to do their work for national development.
The Ex-ImBank President, Mr Li Ruogu, said his Bank has been working with Ghana Government over the years and would be prepared to support the Ministry and for that matter the new government.
He said development of roads and bridges is a viable area the Bank will consider credit facility, some of which are already in operation. He advised Ghanaian contractors to learn from Chinese contractors who work 24 hours a day through shift system.
He said China now builds some of the best roads and bridges in the world. That the Bank will be happy to support the road sector of Ghana. That for the procurement of equipment from China with credit facility from the Bank is feasible. He suggested that a feasibility study must be done for specific projects and submitted to the Bank for consideration.
He also recommended the World Bank and Ex-ImBank for support. He said some concessionary loan facility, too is available, adding that Ghana’s Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning must be contacted to take the necessary procedures and processes for consideration.
Seminars
As part of the strategy to build the capacity of local contractors, members of the Association of Road Contractors also participated in special seminars and workshops while in China. The special seminars were organised by their Chinese counterpart contractors for the Equipment manufacturing companies to present papers and demonstrate the performance of their equipment for the Ghanaian contractors.
Thus, through the demonstrations and interactions during open forum sessions, the Ghanaian delegation were exposed and educated on various aspects of the construction industry of China which hitherto was unknown to them.
Little wonder when just half way in the programme, most Ghanaian contractors gapped their moths in wonderment about what the people of China can do. In fact many of them openly confessed that their perceptions which were largely based on prejudice were unfounded.
One contractor stated: “We have been brainwashed for a very long time about China that everything from a communist country is inferior.” Another said, “I don’t understand why China is referred to as a developing nation and not a developed country.”
Again another Ghanaian contractor postulated: “From now onward, we will turn our face towards China rather than say we are going to the West. Even the quality of the machines and the work that they are capable of doing with prices not cheap but very, very moderate is a proof that we should better do business with China rather than with the West,” the contractors unanimously concluded.
In all six different manufacturing companies did presentations and demonstrated the operation of their machinery. They included Balama Prima Equipment, Shandong Road Construction Machinery Factory, Xi’an Dangang Road Machinery Co., Ltd and Zoom Lion Environmental Sanitary Machine Series
The National Chairman of the Association of Road Contractors Ghana, Mr. J. Twumasi-Mensah, was full of praise to Chinese Manufacturing companies, especially those of the construction industry and promised that efforts would be made for more Ghanaian contractors to go to China to see things for themselves.
In terms of the actual construction of roads and bridges, he said Ghanaian engineers, architects and artisans in the road construction industry have a lot to learn from China. He was grateful to the Business Development Services Fund for co-sponsoring the trip to China.
