Accra — The Ghana Investment Promotion Council (GIPC) would soon open an office in Shenzhen, a sub-provincial city of Guangdong province in southern People's Republic of China, situated north of Hong Kong, to facilitate business opportunities between China and Ghana, Mr Robert Ahomka-Lindsay, the Chief Executive Officer has disclosed.

He said China was the source of direct investment for Ghana and her investment cut across a wide range of areas including the energy, hospitality, industry, manufacturing and mining sectors.

Mr Ahomka-Lindsay was speaking at a business interaction session between a China business delegation from the China-Africa Business Council (CABC) and Ghanaian businessmen in Accra.

The 63-man delegation under the leadership of Mr Hu Deping, president of CABC, is on a four-day business tour to seek investment opportunities in Ghana and other parts of Africa.

The tour is under the auspices of the China Society for Promotion of the Guangcai Programme and the CABC.

The CABC is a joint project of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the Ministry of Commerce of the China and the Guangcai programme established in 2005 to deepen the economic relations between China and Africa, particularly with regard to investments.

Mr. Ahomka-Lindsay mentioned the energy, mining, infrastructure, industry, tourism and ICT sectors as some of the areas in the economy that Ghana would like China to invest in.

"We are aware that China wanted to enter the African market in a productive way and we are taking this opportunity to invite them to see Ghana as a gateway to Africa," he added.

He, therefore, urged them to capitalise on the large trade opportunities in Ghana to establish manufacturing plants, especially textiles industries, to seal the friendship between the two.

Mr. Hu said the CABC was a private sector driven non-political, non-governmental organisation (NGO), with strong public sector support, aimed at establishing a strong and enduring Public-Private Partnership, set the platform for the Chinese Government and private sector to meet and discuss ways to further strengthen economic relations between China and Africa, among others.

He said it was a two-level mechanism that worked on the one hand alongside government departments, and on the other as a practical business tool to assist Chinese and African companies to further their interests and achieve greater success in investment and trade objectives.

Mr. Hu said apart from the energy sector his country was ready to do more business with Ghana in other areas, especially in agriculture and tourism.

Meanwhile GIPC has assured domestic investors will not in anyway sideline them in the quest to attract foreign investors, the Chief Executive of the Ghana Investment Promotion Centre (GIPC,) assured the business community.

Mr. Robert Ahomka-Lindsay said in spreading the news about how Ghana had become one of the top 10 most attractive investment destinations, the Centre was very much aware about the role and impact of local investors which could not be traded.

Mr Ahomka-Lindsay said this at the World Association of Investment Promotion Agencies (WAIPA) and United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) pre-conference meeting underway in Accra.

The meeting which focuses on building capacity on investment for WAIPA members precedes this year's World Investment Forum which takes place on Saturday and the UNCTAD XII conference which commences on Sunday in Accra.

Speaking on capitalising on Ghana's top reformer position in the doing business, Mr. Ahomka-Linday said: "In raising awareness of Ghana as a preferred investment destination it is very important that we don't forget our domestic investor."

He said GIPC had created centres and was opening offices in all regions

in order to the reach the local businesses and provide them with investment advisory services.

Again, he said, similar offices were being opened in Germany, USA, India, China and other places abroad to promote Ghana to the world.

"It is important to promote international networking," he said.

Nana Yaa Ofori-Atta, Communications Specialist, International Finance Corporation, said there was the need for investment promotion agencies to develop audience specific messages in the target of investors besides their core objectives.