Ghana’s Minister for Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration, Madam Shirley Ayorkor Botchwey, has asked the United Arab Emirates (UAE) to tap into the opportunities presented by Ghana as host of the African Continental Free Trade Secretariat.
On the sidelines of the ongoing World Expo 2020 Dubai, Madam Botchwey, who was speaking in an engagement with H.E. Sheikh Shakhbut Bin Nahyan Al Nahyan, Minister of State at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation of the UAE, urged her counterpart to pay particular attention to Ghana as the country is increasingly becoming the hub for economic integration on the African continent.
She outlined the enormous opportunities on the back of the African Free Trade pact and stressed that the world’s largest Free Trade will connect almost 1.3 billion people across Africa with a market of 3.4 trillion.
The Minister was part of President Akufo-Addo’s high-ranking delegation that participated in the business and economic deliberations between Ghana and the UAE at the ongoing World Expo in Dubai, which led to the signing of MoUs on various commercial and trade partnerships.
She said, “Ghana would like to learn best practice when it comes to how the UAE has done it in terms of development in some key areas such as entrepreneurship and skills development to create employment for the teeming youth of the country.”
She also appealed to the Emirati Foreign Minister to consider the pending visa waiver agreement for diplomats between Ghana and the United Arab Emirates, which she said, when dealt with, would ease a lot of stress in doing business together and foster bilateral relations between the two parties.
On his part, the Emirati Foreign Minister also used the occasion to commend the West African Country for the promotion of peace and stability and assured the Minister that his office will attend to the pending visa waiver agreement for their mutual interests.
He again touched on the many areas of cooperation between the UAE and Ghana and the support for each other at the bilateral and multilateral levels.
The Arab nation has assumed the presidency of the United Nations Security Council for March to discuss security issues across the globe.
The meeting with the Emirati Foreign Minister touched on women’s issues, peace and security, climate change, and many other issues of interest. Present at the meeting were some officials from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration from Ghana.
