The President of the Ghana Union of Traders Association (GUTA), Dr. Joseph Obeng, has bemoaned the influx of Chinese retail businesses into the Ghanaian economy, calling for the amendment of the country’s labour laws.
He said approximately local businesses have lost about 40 percent of the market share to the Chinese, emphasising that local businesses only import 20 percent whilst foreign companies take a huge chunk of 80 percent of goods imported into the country.
Speaking on TV3’s Hot Issues programme on Sunday, May 26, Dr. Obeng further attributed the rapid depreciation of the local currency to these foreign business owners with huge capital to import large containers of goods compared to their Ghanaian counterparts.
He also argued that Chinese businesses should not be allowed to import into the country their parent companies in China but rather bring their capital into the country to meet certain threshold before those businesses are permitted to import.
“Now our major problem is with the Chinese and we are going to go on them seriously,” he told Keminni Amanor, host of Hot Issues.
“The Chinatown and China Mall, these Chinese companies here and all that are taking a chunk of our business over 40%.”
Moreover, Dr. Obeng dismissed the noting that local businesses overpriced their goods rendering customers no option but to go in for the Chinese business.
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“That is what you normally say but it is psychological because you know that we go to China to buy the goods and so once they’re here to make their supermarket and wholesales and all that then you think that your are also going to China [Mall] to buy your goods. The consumer, but they are taking advantage of you, they are not serving you quality even the price is not that low that you think and yet psychologically they all troop to the China Mall, Chinatown, go there and see the cars.
“And now they even trade on Sundays, they are taking it all,” he lamented.
He added, “That is why we tell government that the forex issue, the depreciation of the cedi can be attributed to these group of people because they do not bring the correspondent fund of capital to Ghana.”
