Ghanaians in China decry high facilitation fees for doing businesses in Ghana.

The Ghanaian community in China say the high facilitation fees charged by the government before establishing a business in the country is scaring possible investors away.

The community has appealed to government to reduce the fees to ease the cost of doing business in the country.

At the Open Forum and Town Hall Meeting in Beijing, Ghanaian students and businessmen living in China expressed their dissatisfaction at the high cost incurred in the payment of facilitation fees.

This they say, has driven away Chinese businesses from establishing in Ghana.

“If somebody wants to set up to help you then you are demanding 20 per cent, 25 per cent, 30 per cent, how can the person manage his business? These things should stop," a participant said.

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Others also suggested that, Chinese businesses which wanted to set up in Ghana should be made to give a quota to Ghanaians who has studied in China to have internship slots in their companies.

Reacting to that statement,Officer in-charge of Trade at the Embassy, Kwadwo Atuahene, said it was not in the power of the embassy to insist that the Chinese companies took on Ghanaian students.

He explains that such a policy could make Ghana unattractive for Chinese businesses.

“The best thing for you here is that, the Chinese man will be comfortable to work with someone who has trained in China, has imbibed the Chinese way of doing things and therefore they will be comfortable working with that person,” he added.

Business forum

Some participants recommended that the Embassy to hold periodic forum for Ghanaian businessmen in China to share ideas that would help Ghana develop.

“For instance the ‘dumsor’ issue in Ghana can become a thing of the past. There are so many companies in China which can help solve the problem”.

The forum also lamented on the difficulty in getting information about Ghana to write academic thesis because most government websites are not updated.