Britain Pledges Continued Support for Ghana

Baroness Valerie Amos, British Minister for Africa at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, on Friday pledged Britain's continuous support and commitment to help Ghana move forward.

"Ghana's peaceful conditions and initiative in the sub-region are a progressive development that Britain would support to strengthen the existing bilateral relationship between the two countries," she said.

Baroness Amos said this at a meeting in Accra with Mr Hackman Owusu-Agyemang, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Dr Paa Kwesi Nduom, Minister of Economic Planning and Regional Co-operation.

The British High Commissioner, Mr Rod Pullen and other officials at the British High Commission in Accra accompanied her.

The visit, her second in less than two years, is to build on discussions held in February during British Prime Minister Tony Blair's visit to Ghana on the New Partnership for African Development (NEPAD.

Baroness Amos, who is also the British Prime Minister's personal representative to Africa for the G8, was also seeking the country's views on NEPAD and the way forward.

She said British support for the country is about 65 million pounds adding that it has also developed a new defence relationship with Ghana.

She lauded Ghana's effort on regional integration and other peaceful initiatives, especially in the sub-region.

Mr Owusu-Agyemang expressed the country's gratitude to the British government for its support "especially during the process leading to taking the hard decision of joining the Highly Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) initiative."

He said the UK's budgetary and human resources support had helped the country to focus on national development and other socio-economic conditions.

Mr Owusu-Agyemang recounted British support for the adoption of the Poverty Reduction Strategy (PRS), its rapid response during the recent helicopter crash in the Eastern Region with high-powered military intelligence to assist in locating of the plane.

On the NEPAD agenda, the Foreign Minister said British support and advice had contributed to developing and translating the vision of African leaders into action to transform the continent.

Dr Nduom emphasised the leadership role that UK had offered in the process of getting country's development partners to focus on her priorities.