Mr Robin Budden, General Manager Newmont Akyem Project, has commended journalists in the Eastern Region for their active participation in the company's programmes and activities. He said that active participation gave the company encouragement to do more in their efforts at building understanding, trust and support for the company not only with the media but more importantly with their communities. Mr Budden said this in a speech read on his behalf at an end year soiree for the media in Koforidua. He said the company had chosen the path of consultation, dialogue, partnership and collaboration as the basis of building a relationship based on mutual respect. Mr Budden said that collaboration and respect had been demonstrated through community engagement and the collective and shared investments aimed at sustainable community development. He said the company believed that its long-term success depended on creating value and wealth within its communities and that the maximum benefits would come from empowerment of people to improve their own lives and enhanced capacity of social institutions and groups. Mr Oduro-Kwarteng Marfo, Principal Communication Officer of the Newmont Akyem Project, appealed to the media to continue to work closely with the company to make the "Akyem Project an epitome of how mining companies and their communities should relate to each other". Newmont Akyem Project is a mining company operating in the Birim North District. Source: GNA