Denmark supported Decentralisation programme

Accra, Sept.17, GNA - Denmark has provided 89 million dollars towards government's decentralization programme especially in its commitment for good governance, President John Agyekum Kufuor said in Accra on Wednesday.

He said in addition, Denmark had offered assistance to improve the living standard of women, improve rural health and provide potable water.

President Kufuor said this when Mr Fleming Bjork Pederson, the Danish Ambassador in Ghana presented his Letters of Credence at the Castle, Osu on Wednesday.

He called on Denmark to continue with the support it has been giving to the private sector in its efforts to fight poverty, saying, " when the economy improves there would be tremendous poverty reduction".

Mr Pederson said bilateral assistance in grants to Ghana by the end of the year, would amount to more than 45 million dollars in the health, water and sanitation, roads and the private sectors.

He said the assistance was offered as a result of the peaceful democratic transition in 2000 and the government's development policies that had put emphasis on the private sector as the engine of growth. 17 Sept. 03