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Mr Charles Xavier-Luc Duval, Deputy Prime Minister of Mauritius, had his visit to the Northern Region truncated, when a dispatch rider leading the entourage from the Savelugu Municipality to the Tamale Metropolis was involved in a gory accident. Xavier-Luc Duval, who is also the Minister of Finance and Economic Development in Mauritius, arrived in Ghana on Wednesday at the head of a 30-member business delegation for a three day visit to deepen bilateral relations and explore investment opportunities, particularly in the sugar industry. He was expected to leave for Mauritius on Friday but was asked to embark on a visit to the Northern Region by a government appointee, according to sources. It is however unclear which Minister or government official impressed on the Mauritian Prime Minister to make the Tamale trip, since sources say it was originally not part of the itinerary planned for the visiting Number Two of Mauritius. The Deputy Prime Minister was reportedly taken to places including the Marina�s shopping mall as well as the river side at Akosombo by a state official though it was not part of his itinerary. Mr Duval who had earlier addressed a durbar of chiefs and people of Savelugu in the Savelugu-Nanton Municipality, said the Mauritian Government had made funding available to commence work on the 250-million-dollar sugarcane manufacturing factory in the area. He assured the people that many jobs would be created to give great prosperity to the people to enhance their living standards. The Yoo-Naa, Naa Abubakari Mahama, chief of Savelugu, enskinned the Prime Minister under a name interpreted to mean Sugarcane Development Chief. Earlier in Accra, Haruna Iddrisu, Minister of Trade and Industry, told the visiting Vice Prime Minister that government was determined to reduce the amount of sugar imports drastically in the next few years. He said Ghana was determined to reposition itself as the major exporter of sugar in the sub-region and would therefore explore every opportunity in the development of sugar cane plantations to achieve its purpose. Government, he said, would plan its infrastructure and make land available for the sugar cane plantation initiative to quickly take off.