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Ghana Signs Accords With China Ahead of Summit in Beijing

Ghana Signs Accords With China Ahead of Summit in Beijing

(Bloomberg) -- Ghana signed eight cooperation agreements with China following talks between the two nations’ leaders in Beijing ahead of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation that starts Monday.

The package of agreements included the $2 billion infrastructure deal Ghana reached in July with Sinohydro Corp. to improve its roads and develop railways in exchange for bauxite, according to a statement from the office of President Nana Akufo-Addo.

“We are looking seriously at how we can secure sources of long-term finance that will allow us to deal with our infrastructural development,” Akufo-Addo said.

China Harbour Engineering Co. also agreed to build the marine facilities for a liquefied natural-gas terminal in the port of Tema, which the company is currently extending, according to a separate statement late Sunday. Jiangnan Shipyard of China will construct the floating regasification facility, the presidency said in the statement.

When completed, the $350 million project will provide as much as 2 million tons of natural gas per year, and supply about 30 percent of Ghana’s total electricity generating capacity.

Ghana is floating the idea of a $50 billion so-called Century Bond to get infrastructure funding, and would like China to contribute, Akufo-Addo said. The other accords are related to China’s Belt and Road Initiative, aviation, maternal health, construction projects and the supply of police vehicles.

To contact the reporters on this story: Pauline Bax in Johannesburg at pbax@bloomberg.net;Moses Mozart Dzawu in Accra at mdzawu@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Karl Maier at kmaier2@bloomberg.net, Steve Geimann, Pauline Bax

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