Ghana's new battleground?

Entering 2011, Ghana has seen a flurry of high level visits from China and U.S., the density of the visits could indicate an ongoing competition between the two giants in the African country.

First U.S. Deputy Secretary of State James Steinberg came for a visit during his six-nation African tour which took him from Sudan, where a historic referendum to split the largest African nation took place, to neighboring Djibouti, and then to Eastern African countries Ethiopia and Kenya and then to Western African Ghana.

Following his heels, Deputy U.S. Trade Representative Marantis visited Accra before heading on to Monrovia, Liberia. While in Ghana, he held a media availability disclosing that the bilateral trade between the U.S. and Ghana surpassed $4.8 billion and pledged to review the trade initiatives and opportunities available to Ghanaian businesses to make them more attractive.

"“We are working with the Ghanaian government on trying to identify new export opportunities for Ghanaian products into the US market,” he was quoted by local JoyFM.

For Beijing's part, right before the Feb. 3 Chinese New Year celebration even ended, Chinese vice president of People's Political Consultative Conference has arrived in Accra Feb. 13 for a visit on his African tour which took him later to Uganda and Mozambique. Mr. Li Zhaozhuo met the Ghanaian President Mills and House Speaker.

Following the heels of Mr. Li from CPPC, the Chinese Minster of Commerce, an influential agency who is overseeing China's foreign investment, commerce and assistance, visited Ghana Feb.15. Minister Chen met Ghanaian President Mills, Hannah Tetteh, Minister of Trade and Industry, and Kwabena Duffuor, Minister of Finance and Economic Planning

China's Export-Import Bank signed the preferential export buyer's credit loan agreement on e-government platform projects with the Ghana, at the meetings.

Ghana is China’s fourth export market in Central and West Africa. In 2010, bilateral trade value hit US$2.056 billion, breaking through US$2 billion for the first time, up by 27.5% year on year, said the statement from MOC of China.