Building Tema Hospital Road to Lighten Residents' Burden – Minister of Transport Urges MPS

General News of Sunday, July 14, 2019

Source: Myjoyonline.com

2019-07-14

The Minister of Transport urged shareholders of Meridian Port Services (MPS) to speed up the construction of the Tema Hospital Road.

Kwaku Ofori Asiamah says this will ensure that residents in the area and surrounding areas will fully or fully benefit from the newly developed Terminal 3 port.

He believes that for the new terminal 3 operated by MPS to achieve the best possible, all badociated infrastructure, especially the Tema Hospital Road, which is part of the agreement, must be built to to allow residents to make the most of this facility.

"We have said time and time again that we can not build this building (Terminal 3) without the badociated infrastructure, especially roads, to make the turnaround time easier and less expensive.

"Because if your port becomes efficient, it's not just about its activities but about the badociated infrastructure. Since our installation from 2017 to today, we have not been able to go ahead. We can not start the full operation of this port without the construction of the hospital road, "he noted.

Asiamah made the comment when he visited Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta on Thursday for an unannounced visit to the recently built terminal 3 of the port.

The construction of the Tema Hospital Road was taken into account by the management of MPS. However, disagreements on the structure of the facility delayed the start of this project.

For the Minister of Transport, the country is not going to sit down and watch the port operations hampered by disagreements over the structure of the road project of the Tema Hospital, insisting that in any difficult situation , There is a solution.

For his part, Mr. Ofori-Atta explained how the revenue losses in the port of Tema affected the country's GDP and expressed the hope that with 80% of GPHA's activities outsourced to MPS, the losses in revenues in the port will disappear.

"We have had recurring problems with our customs revenue and it is quite shameful to give what is happening in our neighboring countries and where we should be.

"So, this year, for example, while domestic revenue has increased by about 34%, customs are somehow late, but if you step in, you're going to take about 80% of the container market, which will therefore a key aspect of income. And we are trying to make sure that the loss of revenue we record at GPHA will be completely eliminated, "he said.

He added, "But you entered this investment thinking of Ghana, thinking of West Africa. As you know last week, Ghana was chosen to host the headquarters of the Continental Free Trade Agreement with Africa (AFTCA). As partners, we are transforming our 30 million inhabitants and 50 billion of GDP into a potential of 1.3 billion inhabitants and 3 trillion of GDP.

"So it becomes the level of potential profitability if we do this job well. So, even if you think about your phases 2 and 3, you should start thinking that this thing is bigger than we had imagined and so what should we do?

He is confident that once this vision is realized, it will open up the country to "incredible potential foreign resources and customer obligations".