Chinese investors are to inject about $570 million into three major projects in Ghana’s mining, health and agricultural sectors.

The investments involve a $500­-million project to give a facelift to some parts of the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital in Accra; the construction of a $42-million gold refinery at the Trasaa­co Village in Accra and a $25-million oil palm refinery and processing facto­ry in the Central Region.

The three projects are jointly expected to create more than 200,000 jobs, particularly for the youth, and also impact positively on the national economy.

Officials of the China and Africa Fund Holding, a wholly-owned Chinese govern­ment agency for investments in Africa, are due in Accra soon to conclude and sign an agreement on the company’s commitment to provide funding for the Korle-Bu project.

The delegation is expected to hold a meeting with officials of the Ministry of Food and Agriculture to seek confirmation for the funding of the $25 million oil palm refinery and processing factory.

The three investments are under the auspices of Modern Gold Refinery – a part of the Chyuan Chya Group of investment, whose Chief Executive Officer, Dr Lorinda Liang, is upbeat about the impact of the pro­jects on Ghana’s economy.

Last September, President J.E.A. Mills side-stepped a UN General Assembly meet­ing in New York for a trip to China which yielded a $3 billion Chinese investment in Ghana’s oil sector.

The latest investments in the mining, health and agricultural sectors affirm the growing bond of bilateral relations between the two countries.

The gold refinery project, expected to be established next June and generate about 25,000 jobs, is a joint investment by Modern Gold Refinery and its American, Canadian and Chinese partners.

Dr Liang said considering the fact that about 100 per cent of gold produced in Ghana by both large and small-scale mining companies was refined outside the country, the construction of the refinery would save exporters of raw gold huge cost in trans­portation and other expenses related to refin­ing gold outside the country.

She said it would also help retain in the Ghanaian economy huge amounts of foreign exchange that would have otherwise been used for such business endeavours, while raking in more foreign exchange from processed gold.

According to Dr Liang, the gold refinery project would also involve the production of jewellery, gold coins, medals and other gold products, all of which would create anxillary jobs for the people.

The oil palm processing plant project, to be financed by the China and Africa-Fund Holding, will be established in August 2011 and used for the production of soap, deter­gents, cooking oil, body cream and other commercial products.

Dr Liang said under the project, more than 200,000 oil palm farmers and Agricul­ture students would be trained during the week and on weekends, respectively, on how to grow better quality oil palm seedlings.

She said the farmers had a challenge to deliver an order of 36,000 tonnes of oil palm, adding that initially 500 tonnes of crude palm oil was expected to be exported by January 15, 2011.