UN General Assembly
2018

The traditional methods for tackling that problem will not provide the answer. We are looking for new ways to resolve it. Ghana, like many countries in Africa, is forging relations with China, so as to make arrangements that can help address part of our infrastructure deficit. That is not a uniquely Ghanaian or African phenomenon. It has not been lost on us that the developed, rich and well-established countries have been paying regular visits to China and seeking to open new economic ties and improve upon existing ones. It is also not lost on us that much anxiety is being expressed about the possibility of a recolonization of the African continent by a new Power. We should learn from history. It was at the turn of the twentieth century that China’s first railways were built by Western companies and were financed by Western loans to a nearly bankrupt Qing Dynasty, and it was under those circumstances that a certain strategic port called Hong Kong was leased for 99 years. The rest, as the saying goes, is history.