from emmanuel opoku,

shama

president nana addo dankwa akufo-addo on saturday unveiled a plaque to officially commission a tiles factory in the shama district of the western region.

he praised sunda international - a chinese company –for investing over usd $ 77 million in setting up the twyford ceramic factory in the country.

president akuffo addo highly commended the investors of the project for their massive confidence in the government’s trade and industrialization policy, the ghanaian economy and also sourcing 95% of the raw materials locally, challenging the company to increase this figure to 100% in due course.

''i congratulate the chair person,board, management and directors of sunda international for the decision to establish the factory here in shama. it will not only reduce our country’s ceramic tiles import bill, but will also create employment for the young men and women resident here,’’ he expressed..

''you have shown the way and i believe your business venture in the shama district will be a great signal to the reluctant investors who are waiting to see results from your investment as a motivation for their own initiatives,’’ he remarked.

the president urged twyford ceramics to play by the rules of the industry and assured the company of his open-door policy to resolving any challenges that might arise in the course of their operations.

''many are those who doubted the government's sincerity or apability towards creating the enabling business or financial, institutional and legal framework for this industrialization initiative to thrive in the short, medium and long term," president akufoaddo noted.

he announced that ghana gas had reduced the price per unit gas supply to twyford and other factories in furtherance of the government’s commitment to improving the business environment.

‘’through the new industrial development tariff authorized by the minister of energy, a new reduced rate for energy has been approved for industry. this government is determined to enhance the competitiveness of ghanaian industry,’’ he said.

he challenged the youth to take advantage of the employment opportunities that would be made available to them with the establishment of the new ceramics factory.

president akufo-addo called on all the staff to work hard to increase productivity.

group chairman of sunda ternational, y.c. shen, stated that twyford ceramics was set up in ghana because of the enabling business environment created by the government through the ‘one district, one factory’ programme.

he announced that an estimated 1,864 jobs had been created for ghanaians by the new factory.

''considering all the benefits of the project to the government and people of ghana, we at twyford ceramics factory are asking for all the support that we can get from the government to ensure a smooth operation for the benefit of all,” mr shen appealed.

he was very hopeful that the factory would help reduce the importation of tiles into ghana and the demand on foreign currency to stabilize the local currency.

mr. y.c. shen lauded the government for the ‘one district, one factory’ policy, which he said had been introduced in china several years ago.

the group chairman disclosed that twyford ceramics’ designed production capacity is 14.4 million square meters per year, with the sales amount estimated to be usd 82.8 million.

this, he noted, would therefore, reduce importation of tiles into ghana from a whopping usd90.66 million to a mere usd 7.86 million per year, with a further potential to dramatically reduce the demand on foreign currency and therefore stabilize the local currency.