The Upper East Region abounds in mineral resources that should be tapped for development, Mr Mark Woyongo, Regional Minister has said. The Regional Minister told the Australian High Commissioner to Ghana, Mr Billy Williams, when he visited the Region to inspect and commission some projects the High Commission was funding. Mr Mark Woyongo mentioned gold and bauxite as some of the resources in areas such as Nabdam in the Talensi-Nabdam and Sandema in the Builsa Districts. He said the Region was also endowed with a lot of tourist sites, including the Paga Crocodile Pond, Pekoro Slave Camp in Kassena, Tengzugu Shrine in the Talensi-Nabdam and the Sirigu Women Pottery Association. Another area the Regional Minister talked about was the craft industry, with a large population in the region engaged in basket and leather weaving, which he said needed support to improve and expand their work. Mr Woyongo told the Australian High Commissioner about the defunct Meat Factory at Zaurungu and said the Region was prepared to partner any investor to go into meat production. He said majority of their farmers reared cattle, goats and sheep that could be used to feed the Meat Factory and that additional cattle could be imported from neighbouring countries like Burkina Faso, Niger and Mali. Mr Woyongo noted that the Region would need a lot of dams to do irrigation farming since the rainfall pattern was very erratic, stressing that more dams would give people jobs and an opportunity to earn income, thereby preventing them from migrating to the southern sector for jobs. He commended the Australian High Commission for sponsoring a number of projects in the fields of education, health, water, solar panels and the empowerment of women with micro credits. Mr Woyongo said if the Region was empowered with the necessary capacity and technical know how to exploit its rich potentials, it could help reduce the endemic poverty in the area. He said partners who would like to venture into mineral exploitation in the region would be given tax exemptions to undertake their activities. The Australian High Commissioner explained that he was in the Region to inspect some projects the Commission was funding and to see how they could improve upon or add more projects. He assured the Regional Minister that the Australian Government would continue to collaborate with and support Ghana.Source: GNA