By William
Yaw Owusu
Wednesday
July 11, 2018
Chancellor of the
Federal Republic of Germany, Angela Merkel, will visit Ghana on the invitation
of President Akufo-Addo in late August, the German Embassy in Accra has
announced.
Ambassador Christoph
Retzlaff, flanked by his deputy, Hans-Helge Sander, said at a brief news
conference that Chancellor Merkel is expected to be accompanied by the Federal
Minister for Economic Cooperation and Development, Gerd Müller and a high-level
business delegation.
He said the
Chancellor, who is arguably the most powerful woman in Europe currently, is
scheduled to embark on a tour of Africa, visiting Ghana, Nigeria and Senegal.
The German
Ambassador said Chancellor Merkel will spend a day in Ghana and hold high-level
meeting with President Akufo-Addo, but added that a chunk of her delegation
will stay for another day to deepen economic cooperation and bilateral
relations with Ghana.
“The visit to Ghana
will be the first of a German Chancellor to Ghana since 2004. This visit
underlines the strong and deepening partnership between Ghana and Germany,” he
said.
“President
Akufo-Addo has met Chancellor Merkel two times in Berlin in June 2017 and
February 2018. German President, Steinmeier was in Ghana for a state visit in
December 2017. The visit will focus on economic cooperation and promoting
investment and business in Ghana.”
Ambassador Retzlaff
further observed that “the visit will also be an opportunity to discuss and
take stock of the G20 ‘Compact with Africa Initiative,’ launched in June 2017
in Berlin under Germany´s G20 presidency,” he said, adding that “the Compact
with Africa aims at bringing more private investment to the African partner
countries, amongst which Ghana is a front runner.”
“Germany is
supporting Ghana through long-standing development cooperation programmes, as
well as a new bilateral ‘Investment and Reform Partnership,’ which was launched
in December 2017 and brings additional 100 million Euros of German development
funds to promote renewable energy and energy efficiency in Ghana and to foster
private investment into renewable energy, as well as vocational training in the
energy sector.”
He said “the Reform
and Investment Partnership supports Germany’s commitments under the G20 Compact
with Africa.”
He said another
highlight of German-Ghanaian relations will be the “German African Business
Summit (GABS) in Accra from 11-13 February 2019,” saying “GABS is the German signature
business event in Africa. Top business and government leaders from Germany and
Sub-Saharan Africa meet every two years in Africa to promote economic relations
between Europe’s largest economy and the fastest growing region in the world.”
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