The idea was mooted in an interactive session organised by the Bengal Chamber here at an interactive session on business opportunities with Ghana on Tuesday.

Gold Coast, as Ghana was known formerly is the leading producer of gold and cocoa in the world.

Michael A.N. N. Oquaye Jnr (High Commissioner of the Republic of Ghana) said: “Ghana and Ivory Coast produce 70% of the world’s cocoa with Ghanaian cocoa rated as the best in the world.”

Consul General of Ghana in Kolkata Dwarika Prasad Tantia identified this as a potential sector of collaboration and stated: “Our Jute can be a great packaging material for the cocoa industry in Ghana.”

Michael A.N. N. Oquaye Jnr (High Commissioner of the Republic of Ghana), Aaron Nuamah Sintim (First Secretary, Consular & Welfare), Michael Harry Ansah  (Special Aide of the High Commissioner of Ghana) along with Dwarika Prasad Tantia (Honorary Consul, Consulate of Ghana) represented Ghana in this regard.

Ghana, a West-African country share a lot of commonality with India and the friendship between the two nation’s dates back to the 1950’s when Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru and President of Ghana Kwame Nkrumah joined hands to initiate the Non-Aligned Movement.

Ghana generates surplus electricity that it supplies to neighbouring countries like Burkina Faso and Togo and it is one of the first nations to sign the International solar Alliance.

At present, Ghana exports to India cashews, scrap metal, timber products, cocoa beans and spices and looks to initiate business in sector like agriculture, health, energy, infrastructure railways, water irrigation, textile and housing in West Bengal.

The two countries have already collaborated in some of the sectors and recently an agreement has been signed between Ghana and Marwah studio in Noida where a few Bollywood productions that are to be executed by Marwah studio will be partly shot in Ghana.

When asked about the possibility of investment is West Bengal with regards to the Cocoa and manganese Industry of Ghana  Michael A.N. N. Oquaye Jnr told,” We have to sit and discuss about the opportunities and I would request anyone coming up with ideas to get in touch with Aaron (First Secretary, Consular & Welfare).”

Other than this some of the potential fields that came up in the course of discussion were medical, ICT, mining and start-ups firms.”

Indrajit Sen (President Designate, the Bengal Chamber) said, “Our aim is to forge better ties by upholding amicability.”

(Reporting by Sourajit Choudhury)