Shirley Ayorkor Botchway – Foreign Minister
Foreign Minister Shirley Ayorkor Botchwey met her Latvian counterpart Edgars Rink?vi?s at the weekend in Latvia while on a working visit to that country.
She was accompanied by Ghana’s ambassador accredited to Latvia, Gina Ama Blay, and a 14-member delegation of businessmen and government officials, led by Yofi Grant, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Ghana Investment Promotion Center (GIPC).
During their meeting, the ministers discussed topics of current importance in bilateral relations between Latvia and Ghana, with a special focus on cooperation in economy, trade, information and communication technologies, education and science.
The Ministers agreed that the legal framework for cooperation of the two countries should be expanded in order to promote student and academic staff exchange, and make experience sharing easier in the fields of mutual interest, including food and chemical industries, electronic solutions for public administration, digitalisation in the agricultural sector, as well as forestry and environmental development.
Edgars Rink?vi?s congratulated Ghana on the plans recently announced by the American Google company to open an artificial intelligence centre in Accra, the capital city of Ghana, and he also pointed to opportunities for cooperation in the ICT sector.
The parties also shared views on the need to explore the potential for contacts in aviation and tourism.
The Foreign Ministers discussed cooperation between Latvia and Ghana in regional formats: joint activities in the United Nations and relationship between Ghana and the European Union, and latest developments in relations between the African Union and the EU.
Other topics reviewed were the withdrawal of the United Kingdom from the EU, the increasing role of China in the African continent, and Ghana’s economic relations with China and India.
The parties agreed to continue the exchange of high-level visits and promote political dialogue.
Ms Botchwey also met with the State Secretary of the Ministry of Economy, ?riks Egl?tis, the Deputy Speaker of the Saeima (the Latvian Parliament), Inese L?bi?a-Egnere, the Deputy Chairman of the Saeima Foreign Affairs Commission, Rihard Kols, as well as MPs Andris Morozovs un Veiko Spol?tis.
Ghana is one of the largest trade partners to Latvia in West Africa, and the Ghanaian Minister for Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration brought along a business delegation, which took part in the Latvia-Ghana Business Forum.
The networking event, organised in association with the Investment and Development Agency of Latvia (LIAA), demonstrated the interest of Latvian companies in the Ghanaian market.
The business delegation also held meetings with representatives from the education sector and visited various pharmaceutical and ICT companies.
In addition, the Ghanaian delegation met with representatives from a Latvian Non-Governmental Organisation, ‘Green Freedom,’ which is implementing a social business project in Ghana.
Mr Yoofi Grant disclosed that the three Baltic States have expressed desire to embark on a major investment drive in West Africa using Ghana as gateway.
The Baltic States, located in the north-eastern region of Europe, include Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania on the eastern shores of the Baltic Sea.
Speaking in an interview after participating in the Ghana – Latvia Business Forum, Mr. Grant stated the GIPC’s aim at the forum was to strategically position Ghana to attract the majority of investment inflows from Latvia and the rest of the Baltic world.
Touching on the uniqueness of the Latvia educational system, Mr. Grant called on the government to offer Ghanaians more opportunity to study there by increasing the number of scholarships awarded to Ghanaians annually.
The State Secretary of the Ministry of Economics of Latvia, ?riks Egl?tis, on his part, pledged to engage stakeholders in his country to ensure that Latvian education was made accessible to several more Ghanaians beyond the current numbers.
Also, the Ghana Free Zones Authority charged the Latvian business community to invest in
Ghana.