Search
Close this search box.
GBC
GHANA WEATHER

Germany to foster investment in Africa – German Ambassador

Facebook
Twitter
LinkedIn
WhatsApp
Pinterest

Germany has launched the new Africa Fund with a volume of one billion euros to foster investment in Africa, the German Ambassador to Ghana, Mr Christoph Retzlaff, has announced.
He said Germany and Ghana had also just signed a financing agreement valued at 16 million euros for Ghana’s membership in the African Trade Insurance Agency.

Addressing a reception last week Tuesday to mark the 29th anniversary of German reunification, also known as the German Unity Day, and 30 years of the fall of the Berlin wall and Germany’s vibrant partnership with Ghana, he said that would boost trade and investment in Ghana.

Ministers of state, Members of Parliament (MPs), members of the diplomatic corps, members of the German community, the academia, religious and traditional leaders were at a reception to mark this year’s celebration of German Unity Day in Accra.

The Ambassador said he was happy to note that Germany had initiated the G20 Compact with Africa Initiative and had launched their bilateral Reform and Investment Partnership, which is very much in line with the Africa-European Union Alliance, adding that the partnership was producing concrete results.

Mr Retzlaff noted that their development cooperation was reflecting Ghana´s priorities along the Ghana Beyond Aid Strategy and said they had increased the volume considerably under the Reform and Investment Partnership.

“For us, economic development is always linked to the fight against poverty,” he stated, adding that “we must make sure that millions of poor people get the chance to live a life in dignity”.

The Ambassador observed that “poverty is, as Ghana’s President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo said just recently at the United Nations (UN) in New York in the United States of America (USA), still a daily reality in this country and it robs people of their dignity. It is our joint task to change that.”

The Ambassador observed that “poverty is, as Ghana’s President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo said just recently at the United Nations (UN) in New York in the United States of America (USA), still a daily reality in this country and it robs people of their dignity. It is our joint task to change that.”

He said President Akufo-Addo had been to Germany four times already, since taking office, and would come to Berlin once again in a few weeks.
“Our partnership with Ghana is built around three pillars, namely investment and jobs, good governance and the fight against poverty,” he added.

The Ambassador emphasised that Germany-Ghana economic relations were making good progress.

He noted that trade volume went up by 25 percent in 2018, but said both sides could and must do better.

“Conditions for doing business in Ghana have improved, but they are still not as good as they could and should be,” he observed.

Mr Retzlaff noted that many German companies were interested in investing in Ghana and said in February they hosted the “German Africa Business Summit” in Accra — the biggest Africa event of German business with more than 700 participants. In November, he said, the new “German-Ghanaian Business Council” would be launched in Berlin.

Volkswagen will start car assembling in Ghana soon and German company Knauf has opened a vocational training centre in Accra for 900 young Ghanaians.

 

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

ADVERTISEMENT