Recent state visits to Ghana – any significance?
The seemingly unending chain of state visits by certain world leaders to the country is an indication of growing confidence in the Ghanaian economy and governance system today.
In 2017, the visits to Ghana included those of three European Union (EU) leaders. This was after the European Union-African Union (EU-AU) Summit in Abidjan, Cote d’Ivoire. The three European leaders who paid the visits were the Prime Ministers of Estonia, France and the Netherlands, Juris Ratas, Emmanuel Macron and Mark Rutte, respectively.
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The Abidjan Summit was organised on the theme: “Investing in the youth for sustainable development.”
Apart from helping to deepen and enhance the relationship between the EU and the AU, the summit provided a platform for the open discussion of issues and free ventilation of views on matters affecting the two continents.
The theme of the summit was very significant in the light of the unimaginable inhuman atrocities meted out to many young African migrants in Libya where they were treacherously sold into slavery and maltreated like nonhumans.
The summit provided an opportunity for African and European leaders to mount a strategy to deal with the issue of unemployment facing the African youth, a condition which forces them to look for greener pastures elsewhere even at the peril of their lives.
Currently, about 60 per cent of the population in Africa is under the age of 25.
The situation throws a serious challenge to governments on the continent to put a stop to negative tendencies such as bad governance, corruption, wastefulness of national resources and inefficiency.
These pose challenges that cannot be joked with.
The recent visit by Queen Mathilde of Belgium also saw her pay a courtesy call on President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo at the Presidency for bilateral talks. The President and the Queen also visited the University of Ghana for a public lecture on the topic: “The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) – A Transformative Agenda for the Future that we Want.”
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The issue of sustainable development is significant and comes for special mention because two important leaders, President Akufo-Addo and the Prime Minister of Sweden, co-chair a group of 16 eminent personalities tasked by the Secretary-General of the United Nations to generate momentum and commitment from the global community for the achievement of the SDGs Global Agenda 2030.
The Queen’s visit is similar to other official visits to the country last year by high-ranking leaders from various parts of the world, including the three European leaders. Such visits help to deepen and enhance relationship between Ghana and other countries, providing platforms for the open discussion of issues and free ventilation of views on matters affecting them. They show that many foreign partners have great confidence in Ghana’s economy and democratic credentials and would want to move along with the country. The various economic programmes being carried out by the government have sent signals to the world that Ghana is determined to succeed.
It is in the light of this that programmes initiated by the President of the Republic relating to one-district, one-factory, planting for food and jobs, as well as other initiatives to create jobs for the youth in the country and the determination to fight corruption are considered as good efforts to address the socio-economic problems facing the country.
These initiatives ought to be properly monitored to ensure that they achieve the purposes for which they were set up. The visits to Ghana by the Queen of Belgium and other world leaders indicate the high level of confidence they have in the leadership of the country.
The bilateral talks held between President Akufo-Addo and the visiting leaders were, among other things, aimed at the consolidation of relations between the respective countries on one hand, and Ghana on the other. This relationship is being promoted within the framework of the country’s policy of Ghana-Beyond-Aid which can be attained through valueadded exports and maximisation of mutually beneficial trade relations with other countries.
All the visiting leaders have seen the need to encourage Ghana to pursue its agenda of economic transformation, rapid growth, tackling the unemployment problem, good governance and the attainment of peace and security. At the same time, they want to join hands with the country to ensure that matters of mutual interest concerning sustainable development and peaceful co-existence with each other are pursued to their logical conclusions.
Since the world has become a global village, developments in any parts tend to affect other areas. This is why within a framework of globalisation, emerging issues in the country are of concern not only to African leaders but other world leaders as well.
Ghana needs to continue collaboration within the context of pursuing a development agenda for mutual benefit with other countries. No country in the world today is an island on itself and this explains why agreeable mutual collaboration is always necessary for sustainable development.
The writer is Director of Corporate Communications, Ghana Standards Authority.