Sri Lanka, Ghana explore tech exchange and more trade

Sri Lanka and Ghana should develop their bilateral trade further. While Sri Lanka can make use of Ghana’s agro-food processing expertise, Ghana can make use of Sri Lanka’s garment industry technologies to upgrade their apparel manufacturing, said Rishad Bathiudeen, Minister of Industry and Commerce.

The Minister was addressing the visiting Ghanian High Commissioner to Sri Lanka, Robert Tachie-Menson on Monday 10 May at the Export Development Office of the Ministry in Colombo.

“In one key economic aspect, Sri Lanka and Ghana are parallel each other. I am given to understand that Ghana will be the second fastest growing economy in the world in 2011, followed by Qatar. The World Bank also projected that Ghana would be the fastest growing economy in Sub-Saharan Africa in 2011,” the Minister said.

In June 2007, a British firm discovered offshore oil deposits in Ghana and the country joined the rank of African oil exporters in January 2011. Thereafter, the World Bank projected that Ghana would be the fastest growing economy in 2011 in Sub-Saharan Africa.

“Sri Lanka is embarking on a new journey and has turned a new chapter in its history,” Minister Bathiudeen said. “Though the volume of trade between the two countries is small, the total trade between Sri Lanka and Ghana has grown by 260% between 2005 and 2009. This encouraging trend is also seen in Sri Lanka’s exports to Ghana, where our exports to Ghana in the corresponding period saw a 272% increase,” he stressed.

Speaking to Minister Bathiudeen, Tachie-Menson said: “Ghana is still largely an agro-based economy and uses agro-food processing extensively. But Ghana’s apparel industry needs to upgrade its existing technologies.”

In 2009, Sri Lanka’s main exports to Ghana were tea and sweet biscuits, while the main imports from Ghana were live fish and electric accumulators, according to Customs statistics.