Accra, Sept. 4, GNA – Ghana and China on Thursday signed an agreement under which the Chinese government gave two million dollars grant for the rehabilitation of the National Theatre in Accra. Chinese artisans would undertake the project.
The agreement was signed at a brief ceremony at the National Commission for Culture in Accra.
Mr George Hagan, Chairman of the Commission initialled for Ghana while Mr Guo Chang Zhan, Economic and Commercial Counsellor of the Chinese Embassy in Accra, signed for his country. The National Theatre was built in 1990 with a Chinese grant of 20 million dollars.
Mr George Hagan commended China’s outstanding support to Ghana since independence.
He said one of the major things that both countries identified with in their relations for several decades, was the National Theatre. Mr Hagan noted that the edifice that is embossed on the country’s currency and has become part of the nation’s heritage has withstood the vagaries of the Ghanaian weather as well as a major earth tremor and thus needed to be repaired.
He said the gesture is the result of the appeal President John Agyekum Kufuor made to the Chinese government when he visited that country.
Mr Hagan announced that a Technical Team from China, which has been in the country for the past three weeks, has identified the faults and engineering works to be tackled on the physical structure of the theatre.
The Team, he said had gone back to China to prepare a work plan to determine how to carry out the rehabilitation works. The team would come back in six months to commence actual work.
Mr Zhan commended the administration of the theatre; saying that the government of China is impressed by the way the theatre had been managed.
He said the main idea to rehabilitate the theatre is to display the latest Chinese technological development. Japan would also make a grant available to change the entire lighting and sound systems in the theatre.
Source: GhanaWeb
