Chancellor Schroeder arrives in Ghana

The German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder arrived in Ghana this evening at the head of an eight-man delegation for a two-day state visit.

The delegation included Businessmen, Parliamentarians and Journalists.

President John Agyekum Kufuor and the Vice President Alhaji Aliu Mahama, Ministers of State, Chief of Defence Staff, Lieutenant-General Seth Obeng, Inspector General of Police, Nana Owusu Nsiah, Members of the Diplomatic Corps and state official were at the airport to meet Chancellor Schroeder.

The visit, the first ever by a German Leader to Ghana, is at the invitation of President John Agyekum Kufuor and forms part of a four-nation African tour that has already taken him to Kenya, Ethiopia and South Africa.

The German Embassy in Accra told the GNA that one of the main purposes of the tour was to make visible Germany's commitment to strengthening political change and sustainable development in Africa. It is also meant to intensify Germany's cooperation with the African Union; Sub-Regional Organizations such as the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) and African States that have embarked upon a wide range of reforms in the political and economic spheres. It is expected that Chancellor Schroeder would make some policy statements on the new direction of German foreign policy and announce some financial relief to the country.

Ghana expects Germany to slice off some of its debts under the Highly Indebted Poor Country's Initiative (HIPC) during the visit, Nana Akufo-Addo, Minister of Foreign Affairs told the GNA on Tuesday. He said Germany agreed to cancel a substantial portion of Ghana's debt during President Kufuor's visit to Germany two years ago.

In 1989, Germany cancelled all existing bilateral development debts totalling 268.3 million Euros and in 2003 went further to declare the intention of cancelling Ghana's debt to the former German Democratic Republic in full in the procedural framework of the enhanced HIPC Initiative.

It is not known exactly how much Germany might write off this time, but Nana Akufo-Addo described it as "substantial".

He said Germany had remained a solid partner helping to develop a sustainable development pattern for Ghana in the areas of building roads, schools and bridges and balance of payment support among other things.

The Foreign Minister said Ghana counted Germany as an ally in its efforts at putting back on track the failed Cancun Talks on developing a fairer world trade system.

"Germany has been one of our great allies since independence," he said, adding that the visit of Chancellor Schroeder would mark a new level in the quality of relations between the two countries. "We're counting on him (Schroeder) as an ally to help us obtain equitable share of access to the industrialized world," Nana Akufo-Addo said.

The Foreign Minister said Germany played an extremely important role in the G8 in support of ECOWAS and that the Sub Region would encourage it to stay engaged in that process.

The German Embassy in Accra told the GNA that after 42 years of fruitful cooperation, German assistance to Ghana stood at 1,142 million Euros in loans and grants.

German-Ghanaian development cooperation shows total commitment of 1.686.99 million Deutsch marks since 1960; financial cooperation stands at 1.685.99 million Deutsch marks while technical cooperation stands at 240.5 million Euros.

German financial cooperation commitment for 2001 and 2002 was 30.7 million Euros with 11.5 million Euros being grants.

Germany is fourth - coming after the United Kingdom, World Bank/IMF and Japan - in the line of multilateral donors of Ghana.

The German Chancellor would hold bilateral talks with President Kufuor on various issues after which they would co-chair the inauguration of the Kofi Annan International Peacekeeping Training Centre (KAIPTC) on Saturday.

Germany has provided more than 3 million Euros for the construction of the KAIPTC and for technical equipment such as computer network, Internet connection and multimedia equipment for training. While in the country, Chancellor Schroeder would hold bi- lateral talks with Presidents Kufuor.

PICTURE: German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder, left, is accompanied by the President of Ghana John Agyekum Kufuor, upon Schroeders arrival to Accra, Friday, Jan. 23, 2004.