Local furniture producers have lashed out at Parliament for importing furniture from China to refurbish their chamber.<\/p>\n
Parliament resumed sitting on Tuesday to a newly refurbished chamber<\/strong> <\/span><\/a>but it later emerged that the furniture was imported from China.<\/p>\n Some Members of Parliament (MPs) expressed their displeasure at the decision<\/strong><\/span><\/a> by the leadership of the to disregard the President\u2019s encouragement for Ghanaians and institutions to use made in Ghana products.<\/p>\n But the leadership of Parliament explained that the importation was made due to the limited time it had to put the chamber<\/strong><\/span><\/a> in order for MPs to resume work.<\/p>\n [contextly_sidebar id=”sHZwCiVRN8kwcaAi7YXyM6mjZ6YAlyca”]The Deputy Majority Leader, Alfred Kwame Agbesi\u00a0told Citi News<\/strong>, the quantity\u00a0of furniture needed for the refurbishment could not have been produced on time by local furniture companies.<\/p>\n But the importation of the furniture from China has angered local furniture producers.<\/p>\n Speaking to Citi Business News<\/strong>, the Chief Executive Officer of Agorwu Furniture, Samuel Kwame Diabo, said the move by Parliament is disrespectful and a way to satisfy their pay masters.<\/p>\n \u201cTo be very honest, we are totally disappointed in those people who took that particular decision to import foreign furniture to our Parliament House,\u201d he fumed.<\/p>\n He was of the opinion that local industry should have been given the opportunity to exhibit their products in Parliament \u201cbut this couldn\u2019t happen.\u201d<\/p>\n Mr. Diabo disclosed that his company, Agorwu Furniture, is one of the largest furniture companies in Ghana and is very capable of delivering within Parliament\u2019s deadline.<\/p>\n \u201cOur labour force is about 150 and we would have been able to deliver that their order and even beyond that,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n According to him, the government had recently approved about $500,000 for the procurement of equipment for Agorwu Furniture to enable the company produce furniture to meet foreign standards.<\/p>\n \u201cTo be very honest, Agorwu is very well equipped and we have a few other companies in the system that are very good and when we put our heads together, we should be able to put our Parliament in good shape with our own local products, he remarked.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n By: Efua Idan Osam\/citifmonline.com\/Ghana
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