Kwesi Pratt lauds the decision by John Dramani Mahama to travel to China, pointing to a shift in Ghana’s international partnerships.
“I’m so very happy … that the president of Ghana decided to go to China … to work on improving relations with China,” Pratt said.
He argues that in the face of Ghana’s economic and developmental challenges, China offers an alternative: “China is offering us something … which is not an offer from the World Bank and the IMF and it’s also not an offer from the Western capitalist states.”
A key focus for Pratt is the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI); “One of the most important things that China has offered is the belt and road initiative … to make resources available for expansion, rebuilding and expansion of national infrastructure.”
He proposes that Ghana’s traditional infrastructure, largely built around extractive colonial-patterns, must be re-oriented: “all of the railways in Ghana … start from areas of the concentration of wealth … and where do they end up? All of that ends up in the port.
This is typical of the colonial economy. It hasn’t changed.” Pratt highlights China’s “win-win” approach; “Besides the Chinese do not have the rigid conditions that the West has … In China, they’re not foreign policy instruments. … China believes … that the only way you can do that is to cooperate with third world countries.”
For Ghana, Pratt sees this as a model of partnership where infrastructure development serves national transformation, not just onward export of raw resources.
He also cites the zero-tariff initiative being offered to African countries by China, noting that Ghana must ensure it takes full advantage.
