Ambassador Ends Tour of Chicago

His Excellency Alan Kyerematen, Ghana’s Ambassador to the United States has ended a four-day official visit to Chicago, which afforded him the chance to meet with some business executives, members of the judiciary and the Ghanaian community interested in different levels of partnerships with Ghanaians back home.

Accompanied by his Trade and Investment Minister Mr. Seth Evans Addo and Minister Counsel of Information Mr. Ivor Agyeman-Duah, they called on the Mayor of Chicago Richard Daley where the Ambassador expressed his gratitude for an equipment the city, which has over ten thousand Ghanaians, presented to the Government of Ghana and the support the Mayor’s office gives to the Ghanaian community especially the Ghana National Council of Metropolitan Chicago for its annual Ghana festival, the biggest ethnic celebration of culture in the area.

The delegation also held meetings with Mr. Winfred Watson, Vice President of Harris Bank and other executives including Mr. Igor Pitiagorasky, son of the owner of Regal Health, which is the fourth largest dry fruit processing plant in the mid-west. Mr. Pitiagorasky who intends to do business in Ghana leaves for a feasibility study to the country next month.

In the company of Ghana’s Honorary Consul General in Chicago, Robert Bennett, the ambassador and his team also met with the celebrated African-American Judge of the United States Court of Appeals Ann Williams who also leaves for Ghana in October to establish contact for partnership and judiciary links as well as assess the needs of the judiciary in Ghana.

She introduced the ambassador to the Chief Judge of the Appeal Court Joel Flaum, District Court Judge Blanche Manning and Trial Judge David Coal .The Judges agreed after deliberations to work towards the creation of a dialogue to deepen and share experiences in judicial management, pension scheme, retirement benefits, health insurance, structures of administration and training for judges.

The ambassador expressed his appreciation to them and assured that they would find in Ghana a ruling Government which since its creation as a party in 1947 has always believed in the rule of law

Judge Ann Williams on her part said with the kind of attitude that Ghana is showing there is no need to reinvent the wheel. ‘There are some judiciary experiences in the United States that might be useful to you. The U.S. is over 200 years and went through some of the problems Ghana is going through so there is some experiences to be shared.’

Chief Judge Joel Flaum said for good measure that, the United States judiciary has abundant independence and that is the genius to the American system. Judiciary independence strengthens confidence and any developing country, he said could not miss out on that since the absence of that erodes public confidence in the rule of law.

Ambassador Kyerematen was also the toast at a reception hosted by the celebrated Ghanaian painter/artist Samuel Akainyah at the Akainyah Gallery where he addressed a gathering of an elite African-American audience and some Ghanaians. Ambassador Kyerematen said the history of African-Americans and the status they have acquired in the United States could be a catalyst for a fruitful partnership in Africa’s development and that now, was the time to build serious bridges.

He and the select group that proposed the toast were full of praises for Akainyah who like his distinguish late father- Lord Alfred Augustus Akainyah (Author of articles of declaration of the Independence Constitution of Ghana) has made Ghana a proud nation. Samuel Akainyah’s most famous painting is perhaps the official artwork of the 1996 Democratic National Convention commissioned by the National Democratic Committee and the City of Chicago.

The delegation also had meetings with the charity group-Chicago-Accra Sister Cities and the President of the National Louis University and Executive Director of the University International Council for Teaching. The Council is interested in making Accra its headquarters in West Africa.

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During his four day official visit to Chicago, Ghana’s Ambassador to the United States Alan Kyerematen assured the Ghanaian community that it is only with a single purpose and not the politicization of the economy that ‘will see Ghana through the rough times the country is in. This is the belief of the President and it is a belief that I share’ he told the people.

According to the Ambassador all the windows of attracting capital-direct investment, domestic savings, reserves, official development assistance were virtually closed to Ghana and that one of the few reliable sources was for the Government to borrow money from the IFC which loan he explained was concessionary and ‘ you cannot beat it.’ The loan was debated in parliament and passed through all the laid down regulation and ‘is capable of infusing capital to create a paradigm shift in terms of developing and growing the economy.’

Sandwiched by his Trade and Investment Minister, Mr. Evans Seth Addo and Minister Counsel of Information, Mr. Ivor Agyeman-Duah, Ambassador Kyerematen, speaking with clear confidence of the potential of the Ghanaian economy said, the National Democratic Party Government created some reasonable amount of infrastructure before the New Patriotic Party came to power but the NPP Government also inherited a 6 billion dollar debt which was frightening and crippling. Critics of the Government, he said, should examine the situation in which the Government assumed power.

On President Kufuor’s foreign travels, he explained that in the world today, internal harmony did not guarantee total national harmony hence the travels to cultivate friendship and stability with neighbors and others. ‘For without political stability, there can be no economic development’.

On Zero Tolerance for corruption the Ambassador said, declaring it is not even easy and doing it means good intent but as a policy it would be pursued and the law would take care of offenders.

As means to generate revenue, the Government, he explained, adopted a fiscal discipline policy, which demanded that it spent less and increased its revenue. This has started yielding positive gains with the sorting out of the thousands of ghost names on the public expenditure sheets at the ministries, which were troubling. The Ministry of Finance negotiated for local banks to pay 15% of their profits into the National Reconstruction Fund.

‘We are addressing the micro-economy framework without which we cannot talk of growth. Inflation has dropped from 45 to less to 25 and interest rate from 50 % to 35-30%. We will get there.’ He assured the audience.

The President of the Ghana National Council of Metropolitan Chicago Mr. Clement D. Tempo on his part said ‘ the survival of Ghanaians outside the country was intricately linked to the progress and stability in Ghana.’

The Council, made up of all the ethnic associations in the area is also engaged in many development projects in the United States and in Ghana, joined the NPP branch in Chicago to organize the meeting with the Ambassador.

The ambassador was the official guest of the Ghanafest; the most patronized annual festival of the community attended by thousands of people from within the United States and beyond.

There was also a mini demonstration of the Ghana Skills Bank, one of the initiatives of the ambassador aimed at storing the database of professional Ghanaians in a web-enabled system. The technical Director of the Bank Kofi Honu urged all professional Ghanaians to visit the site (ghanaskillsbank.org) and submit their profiles.