Ghana-Germany intergovernmental negotiations open

Accra, Sept. 13, GNA - The biennial bilateral negotiations on cooperation between Ghana and Germany opened in Accra on Thursday with a promise by the Ghana government to continue to pursue policies that would stabilize the economy and maintain the pace of GDP growth. Mr. Kwadwo Baah-Wiredu, Minister of Finance and Economic Planning, said government would also continue to remain steadfast in its commitment to systematically reduce poverty through the implementation of the Growth and Poverty Reduction Strategy (GPRS) with the ultimate goal of achieving broad-based sustainable and equitable growth. "Over the last three years economic growth has exceeded six per cent," he said, adding that Ghana had been rated the most peaceful nation in Africa, while it had a sovereign credit rating of "B Plus". "It is the fastest reforming nation on the continent and the ninth in the world in terms of the creation of a conducive environment for doing business."

The Minister said Government would remain committed to those policies that had brought the nation this far.

Mr. Baah-Wiredu, praising the Federal Republic of Germany for its support, said it was one of Ghana's key bilateral development partners in terms of volume, quality and diversity of development assistance. "The German government, besides funds made available directly under our bilateral cooperation, has also been contributing significantly towards our development through the European Union and other multilateral agencies."

He said Germany had been one of the advocates for Ghana in several international fora whenever Ghana came up for discussion. Mr. Baah-Wiredu said: "Germany has contributed over one billion Euros for projects in key sectors of the Ghanaian economy in the context of our financial and technical cooperation."

He mentioned some of the notable projects as the rehabilitation of Tema-Akosombo road, the rehabilitation of Tema-Sogakope road, district capital/town project, rural water supply project, water supply in Eastern and Volta Regions and Village Infrastructure Project. "Currently, the focal areas of cooperation between the Government of Ghana and Government of Federal Republic of Germany are agriculture and food security; employment oriented private sector; and democracy, good governance and decentralization."

Mr Baah-Wiredu said the outstanding issues to be discussed included the rural feeder roads and bridges, whose project documents were yet to be submitted to government for processing through parliament, and micro finance, whose draft agreements had already been discussed and forwarded to the German agency involved for incorporation into the final document. Mr Baah-Wiredu expressed the hope that this year's biennial bilateral negotiations would provide the needed support to the key project areas and further broaden and deepen the cordial relations between Ghana and Germany.

Professor George Gyan-Baffour, Deputy Minister, Finance, is leading the Ghanaian delegation, whilst Mr Niels Breyer, Head of Central and West African Division of the German Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), is leading the German delegation.

Mr Bryer said Ghana would continue to be one of the most important partners for German development cooperation in the sub-region. "We will also continue to directly support your budget within the framework of multi-donor budget support," he said. Mr. Breyer said Germany at the last G8 summit announced an increase in the scale of its development cooperation with Africa by 750 million Euros per year from 2008 to 2011.

"This is nearly a doubling of the current volume. This shows clearly that Africa and Ghana's development really matter to us.... in our view the cooperation between our two countries is particularly lively and excellent."

Dr Marius Haas, German Ambassador in Ghana, said the German Government and its people were following closely the heavy flooding in the northern parts of Ghana.

He said under the country's instant emergency reaction funds a commitment of 50,000 Euros was made on Wednesday to government to provide food to displaced persons in Upper East Region. 13 Sept. 07