China firmly opposes Tsai Ingwen's plan to meet U.S. officials

the Taiwan authorities, regardless of the rationale or pretext.

Noting China has lodged solemn representations to the U.S. side on this matter, Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning said at the regular press briefing that Tsai's reported trip is not so much a "transit," but an attempt to seek breakthroughs and propagate "Taiwan independence."

China is not overacting to the issue, Mao said, while pointing out that it is the U.S. that has been conniving and supporting "Taiwan independence" separatist forces, which is an act of egregious nature.

She added the issue is not provoked by the Chinese side, but by the U.S. side and the "Taiwan independence" separatist forces.

China rmly opposes Tsai Ing-wen's planned "transit" visit to the U.S. to meet U.S o cials and will take resolute countermeasures in such an event, Zhu Fenglian, a spokesperson for the Taiwan A airs O ce of the State Council, told a press conference on Wednesday.

The remarks came in response to reports that the Taiwan leader planned stopovers in the U.S. and is expected to meet U.S. House Speaker Kevin McCarthy in California at the end of her

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300,000 tonnes that will be a major boost to realisation of the plan.

A well-capitalized VALCO, operating with modern technology, will ensure that the plant is more e cient, more productive, competitive, and can ultimately drive the transformation of the downstream sector of the IAI in Ghana.

The execution of Project 4 alone, will require signicant investments in excess of USD 600 million. This will thus, require a strategic investor/partner with the nancial capacity and technical know-how, to partner GIADEC to expand, retro t and modernize the plant.

Ghana’s downstream sector remains underdeveloped using less than 7,000 tonnes of the about 50,000 tonnes trip.

If Tsai contacts McCarthy, it will be another provocation that seriously violates the one-China principle and undermines China's sovereignty and territorial integrity as well as peace and stability across the Taiwan Straits, Zhu said.

The "transit" by the Taiwan leader is essentially a provocative act of "relying on the United States to seek independence," and the U.S. side is urged to strictly abide by the one-China principle and of aluminium VALCO currently produces. With a forecast of about 300,000 metric tonnes of aluminium after VALCO has been retro tted, GIADEC is working to revive and expand the downstream sector to take advantage of the excess aluminium that would be produced. This will ensure that we maximize in-country value by producing nished aluminium products to substitute imports and grow domestic market share in the Automotive, Electrical, Construction and Packaging sectors.

A thriving Downstream Aluminium Industry will be a vibrant industrial powerhouse made up of manufacturing companies creating thousands of jobs, including high paying jobs for the teeming youth.

Project 4 - the modernization the three China-U.S. joint communiques, and take concrete actions to ful ll the solemn commitment of not supporting "Taiwan independence," the spokesperson said.

The Chinese Foreign Ministry on Wednesday reiterated China's rm opposition against any form of o cial ties between the U.S. and Taiwan, stressing China strongly opposes any U.S. visit by the leader of

"We urge the U.S. to abide by the one-China principle and the three China-U.S. joint communiques, earnestly deliver on its leaders' commitment of not supporting 'Taiwan independence' or 'two Chinas' or 'one China, one Taiwan,'" said Mao.

She also urged the U.S.to stop all forms of o cial interaction with Taiwan, stop upgrading its substantive exchanges with the region, and stop obscuring and hollowing out the one-China principle. China will closely follow the developments of the matter and resolutely and forcefully defend national sovereignty and territorial integrity, Mao noted.

(Cover: The Taipei 101 skyscraper in Taipei City, southeast China's Taiwan. /Xinhua) and expansion of VALCO is, therefore, key to achieving the vision for the downstream.

The Integrated Aluminium Industry is a ‘game changer’! It is at the heart of Ghana’s industrial transformation agenda. When fully implemented prioritized, it will lead to a transformation of Ghana’s economy, and massively turn-around the economic fortunes of Ghana. The IAI, alone, has the potential to create the hundreds of thousands of jobs across every level of the value chain and could be the panacea to Ghana’s unemployment woes, whilst improving Ghana’s GDP substantially.

The timing for developing Ghana’s IAI is right as the aluminium market, though volatile, is looking very favourable and is forecasted to even get better. There has been a rising demand in the use of alumini- um signi cantly by about 54% in the last decade due to its lightweight, high strength, and recycling properties. This upward trend in production is likely to continue in the years to come along with the healthy pace of increase in the usage of aluminium. The development of the downstream will ensure we lock in value in Ghana while signi cantly boosting the economy.

The execution of all four (4) projects under the IAI masterplan are at various stages of implementation. The infrastructure underpinning the IAI i.e power, ports and harbour, railway and roads are equally being developed under the relevant agencies in tandem. This is a multi-year, multi-billion-dollar investment programme.

There are four projects in the

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March 24,202 3 upstream part of Integrated Aluminium plan; rst one relates to the existing mine which is being expanded from 1.5m tonnes to about 5m tonnes production of bauxite per year [GIADEC, OPCl fully owned by Ghana], second one is expected to produce about 5m tonnes of bauxite at Nyinahin in a bid to develop a re nery solution which is at advanced stage with companies who can come in to produce alumina plants which will take stocks for these mines to re ne, the third project is a partnership which GIADEC is developing with a major European aluminium company which will lead to the development of a mine at Nyinahin-Mpasaaso area as well as a re nery [integrated project] which is before cabinet and the fourth project is the moderniza- tion and retro tting of Valco.

The vision of developing an IAI in Ghana is now clearly de ned, and execution is on course. The integration of four (4) operating bauxite mines, two re neries, the VALCO smelter, and a vibrant downstream industry, accompanied by the supporting infrastructure i.e an expanded ports and harbour with increased capacity, railway and supporting network, and a low-cost and stable power supply, will be critical to success.

Since its establishment, GIADEC has been living up to its mandate of developing and promoting an Integrated Aluminium Industry, giving credence to President Akufo-Addo’s vision of a “Ghana Beyond Aid”