The Executive Director of IMANI Ghana, Franklin Cudjoe has said the Chinese government has no business reminding government of its indebtedness.
He made the comment while reacting to the Chinese government’s decision to turn down a loan request from the government of Ghana.
The Chinese government has officially written to Ghana, stating that it will be unable to finance some road projects as a result of some unsettled debts hanging on its [government] shoulders smong others.
[contextly_sidebar id=”eJfYdjsw886As6ng9qMx9RQuOoNtdNV8″]In a letter addressed to the Finance Ministry, the Chinese government indicated that “it is not appropriate to utilize a Chinese concessionary loan to implement projects that may increase the debt burden of the country.”
However Franklin Cudjoe in a rebuttal said: “for me the issue about debt burden is for our [Ghana’s] internal discussion. That is none of their business.”
He recalled these were the same issues that emerged when the Chinese government gave out the Chinese Development Bank [CDB] loan to Ghana.
“These were the very things we said when the CDB loan was arranged and let us not forget that the CDB loan itself unfortunately not all the monies they had wanted came in.”
Lessons
Franklin Cudjoe believes government has been unable to settle its outstanding debts because it failed to learn lessons from past transactions with the Chinese government.
“It looks as if we are still not learning and for me I think that we should be developing enough institutional memory and also understand that in the global public policy space it is not just about your political philosophy which gives you a mileage when it comes to assessing funds.I am a bit worried that we seem to be constantly putting all our eggs in one basket,” he complained.
He therefore advised government to resort to alternative sources of funding to embarking on its road projects.
“Apart from all the reasons that they have given, they think that we should also start looking at alternative arrangements regarding these projects,” he suggested.
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By: Marian Efe Ansah/citifmonline.com/Ghana
Follow @EfeAnsah