The Obuasi Municipal Assembly is relishing the prospects of mine tourism to boost its revenue base, Mr. Elijah Adansi-Bonah, the Chief Executive for Obuasi has hinted.
He announced this when he received a delegation from Essen in the North Rhine Westphalia Region of the Federal Republic of Germany.
Mr. Adansi-Bonah was optimistic that with the rich history of Obuasi regarding the mining sector, the Assembly’s partnership with Essen could leverage on the sector to turn old mine sites into tourism sites to generate revenue for the Assembly.
The MCE explained that mining tourism can provide a plethora of benefits to the Municipality with job creation and environmental conservation.
According to him, after touring Essen in 2022, they realized that the Zollverein Coal Mine Industrial Complex which was awarded the designation of UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2001 is one of the most impressive industrial monuments on the planet.
He stated that, since the final working shift in 1986, Zollverein has been transformed into a prime site for the art, culture and creative sectors, attracting more than two million visitors a year.
The MCE indicated that, North Rhine-Westphalia and Ghana have been working together closely for more than twenty (20) years and that in 2007 the engagement was raised to an official level through a partnership agreement between the State Chancellery of North Rhine-Westphalia and the Ghanaian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration.
According to him, by a renewed agreement of 2016, the governments decided to align the cooperation for the next five years with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), while the partnership was extended in 2017 to include local governance exchange between ministries in NRW and Ghana.
The MCE reiterated that, the Assembly, having picked lessons from the City of Essen, has rolled out the “Obuasi Green City Agenda”, a bold and aggressive policy targeted at converting all gray areas in the Municipality to a Greenery environment to mitigate the effects of climate change.
Nil Ole Haar, the leader of the Essen delegation who heads the office of the European/international affairs and sustainable development of the city of Essen said the partnership between the city of Essen and Obuasi is underlined in the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals under which both cities are pursuing and trying to find common grounds to work together.
He said the two cities are involved in city planning, exchanging ideas and developing projects for the benefit of both cities.
He mentioned that Obuasi and Essen share common problems, hence was hopeful that the partnership and collaboration will enable them to draw up solutions to the challenges.
Nana Kwaku Ponko III, the Kunkahene, expressed his excitement over the sister city relation between Obuasi and the city of Essen, and implored the leadership of Obuasi to learn lessons from the city of Essen, by fashioning out how to sustain the economy of Obuasi beyond the Mine.
The Kunkahene appealed to the Assembly to work closely with the German partners to take advantage of the arable lands in Obuasi for the production of cassava, starch, ginger and coconuts, among others.
