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CLOSE DIPLOMATIC relations between Ghana and Brazil over the years have yielded positive dividends, with Ghana receiving financial assistance from Brazil to boost its economy. The Brazilian Government has committed itself to providing a credit line of $500 million to Ghana for the construction of two hydro electric power plants at Juale and Pwalugu in the Northern Region to generate 90 and 50 megawatts of power respectively. The Brazilian Government is also expected to grant a credit facility of $260 million to Ghana for the development of a 30,000-hectare sugarcane plantation and the installation of an ethanol production plant in the East Gonja District in the Northern Region to produce 150 million litres of ethanol annually for export to Sweden. Again, a partnership arrangement between a Brazilian investor and the Ghana National Association of Farmers was established for the cultivation of 6000 acres of rice in Ghana at the cost of $9 million. These investments are supposed to help shore-up Ghana�s energy requirements and increase food production as well as generate foreign exchange for the country. A Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to effect these bilateral agreements was signed between the governments of Brazil and Ghana on October 2, 2008, according to the Minister for Foreign Affairs & Regional Integration, Alhaji Muhammed Mumuni at the �meet-the-press� series last week. The Brazilian Government, Alhaji Mumuni indicated, also awards scholarships annually to Ghanaians to study in Brazilian institutions of higher learning in line with a cultural agreement signed since 1972. He also commended other foreign partners such as the European Union (EU), Canada, United States of America (USA), Germany, Denmark, France, Spain, United Kingdom, the Netherlands, India, China and Cuba for their immense financial assistance to Ghana. All these countries have been providing financial assistance to Ghana and worthy of acknowledgment was a grant/loan of $60 million from India for the construction of the new Presidential Complex, Jubilee House and the expansion of the rural electrification programme. The German government also cancelled Ghana�s debt of �270 million during the Kufuor-led administration of the New Patriotic Party among other projects executed towards poverty alleviation, improvement of health service delivery, sanitation and the provision of potable water. Similarly, the Government of Japan has given grants to Ghana under the previous administration totalling $90million for the construction and rehabilitation of a number of roads in the Central and Western Regions.