Vice President commends DANIDA

Accra, Dec. 1, GNA -

Vice President John Dramani Mahama has commended the Danish International Development Agency (DANIDA) for building the capacity of Ghanaian workers over the years.

"DANIDA's support to human development, local government and decentralization, has been very enormous and we hope to continue enjoying the cordial relationship we have enjoyed in the past."

Vice President Mahama gave this commendation on Wednesday, when Mr Carsten Nilaus Pederson, new Danish Ambassador to Ghana called on him at the Castle, Osu.

The Ambassador, who is on a duty tour to Ghana, has already presented his credentials to President John Evans Atta Mills and was at the Castle to introduce himself to the Vice President.

The Vice President said Denmark had supported Ghana in the areas of health, local governance, water and sanitation and therefore hoped that such partnerships could grow higher.

Mr Pederson said apart from the traditional areas of cooperation, a consortium of companies in Denmark had also expressed interest in investing in the Ports and Harbours of Ghana and called for more discussions in that direction.

In a related development, Mr Francis Garry, Managing Director of Wide Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), called on Vice president Mahama with a pledge to support Ghana to fight the piracy menace in various intellectual property.

Mr Garry, who was in the country to attend the 13th session of African Regional Intellectual Property Organization, said Ghana had been a member of WIPO for long and therefore had to step up her activities in fighting against abuse of property rights,

Vice President Mahama said Ghana would take advantage of the capacity building they had offered for the past years to fight against the abusers of intellectual property,

He said a major challenge was the high rate of privacy in artistes' musical and film works and gave the assurance that government would support the necessary agencies to eliminate the abusers in society.