ACCRA, Ghana (PANA) - Ghana has been made a member of France's Priority Solidarity Zone list of countries which would enable it to benefit from all instruments under French Development Assistance.

The instruments, Priority Solidarity Fund and Social Development Fund, were hitherto restricted to Francophone countries.

The French ambassador to Ghana, Didier Ferrand, announced the move Monday at the second meeting of the Ghana-France Joint Commission for Co-operation in Accra.

The meeting, which underscores the commitment of both countries to find means of building a mutually beneficial partnership, follows a visit of President Jerry Rawlings to France and that of a delegation of the French Enterprises Association to Ghana in 1999.

The increased assistance under the scheme would complement grants and loans of the French Development Assistance or ADF and the European Development Fund of which France is the main contributor with a 24-percent share of resources.

The AFD committed loans totalling 52 million euros to five new projects in Ghana in 1999, according to Ferrand.

He said emphasis was now being put on agriculture and support to less developed regions as well as regional integration.

Ferrand said France was encouraged by Ghana's commitments to the donor community in areas of structural reforms and macro-economic policies. He said no matter how painful those structures were in the short term, they were a condition for a sustainable growth and prosperity in the medium and long term. He noted that France would continue to look for values of democracy, the rule of law and good governance.

Ghana's education minister, Ekwow Spio-Garbrah, disclosed at the meeting that Ghana has drawn a long-term development plan aimed at leading the country into the middle income bracket by 2020.

He called for improved understanding with the Francophone countries in the sub-region and the removal of "historical obstacles" to free trade and free movement of capital goods and people in order to create a regional market large enough to attract foreign direct investment.

He expressed the hope that the meeting would find new ways for co-operation, saying "France is strategically placed to play a significant role in ECOWAS' integration efforts."