GNA-President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo on Monday laid the foundation stone for Ghana's first ultra-modern foundry and machine tooling Centre at Kwabenya, near Accra.

The facility, in line with Government's agenda to use science technology and innovation as a pivotal element in the country's growth and development, would enable cutting-edge research in foundry technology to provide new materials and processes to make Ghanaian industries more competitive.

It would produce metal cast, especially from aluminium, essential to industries such as agriculture, transportation, construction, automobile, municipal and water infrastructure and railroad among others for the local and international market.

At a short ceremony at the Ghana Atomic Energy Commission (GAEC) where the facility would be built, the President said the establishment of the Centre was a key component of a much broader strategic framework designed to ensure that Ghana’s socio-economic development was driven by Science, Technology and Innovation (STI).

He noted that developing the country's capacity to design and build basic tools and equipment was essential to the government's industrialisation drive for a Ghana Beyond Aid.

President Akufo-Addo said Ghana's economy, like many African countries, had generally remained structurally rigid, depending largely on exports of primary commodities such as gold, cocoa, bauxite and timber.

He said Ghana imported almost all of the equipment, machinery, and parts that support industry, especially in the manufacturing sector.

"This has not allowed the manufacturing base of our country to grow and expand, and has, thus, rendered our economy incapable of creating the thousands and thousands of jobs that our young people yearn for, and that will raise their living standards,” he said.

The President said the setting up of the facility fed into government's strategy
to pursue value addition of the country's resources, through an accelerated industrialisation strategy that exploited the resources of our nation.

He said with Ghana replete with natural and human resources, it was in the position to become a business and industrial hub, producing and exporting manufactured goods and modern services to the rest of Africa, Europe, the Americas, Asia and beyond.

“This is the basis and the foundation for our National Strategy for Industrialisation, and the foundation stone we are laying today is a cornerstone of this industrialisation strategy,” he said.

The facility is expected to be completed in 9 months.