Ghana, Latvia must grow business, official relations

The growing business relations between Ghanaian and Latvian entrepreneurs provide a stronger basis for a state-to-state collaboration, President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has said.

He said the grounds had been laid for the Ghana and Latvia to work together to advance their business and official relations.

The President said this when the Latvian Foreign Minister, Edgars Rinkevics, paid a courtesy call on him at the Jubilee House in Accra yesterday.

Mr Rinkevics, who was led to the Presidency by his Ghanaian counterpart, Shirley Ayorkor Botchwey, is on an official visit to the country with a delegation of 17 captains of industry and other officials from Latvia.

He is the first Latvian Foreign Minister to visit Ghana.

President Akufo-Addo described the historic visit as one that had provided the grounds for a new relationship.

He expressed excitement at the fact that already the visit was bearing fruits through some engagements that had taken place between business people from both countries.

He noted that already Latvian companies were involved in the facilitation of Ghana’s passport and airport formalities, among other things.

That, he said, “was a basis for us to do a lot of things together”.

He mentioned political and commercial relations as some of the areas where the two countries could advance collaboration.

Security

Touching on current armed disturbances around the Sahel, especially Burkina Faso, the President indicated that Ghana was preoccupied with developments in neighbouring countries where jihadist insurgents were causing mayhem.

He gave an assurance that Ghana was leaving no stone unturned to ensure that its borders and people were protected against the advances.

He added that Ghana was also working at the regional level to push back terrorist advances in West Africa, noting that those were major preoccupations for the country and welcomed the support of Latvia towards the Accra Initiative. 

Improving relations

The Latvian Foreign Minister said the trip was to improve the excellent relations the two countries had established over the past five years with the first business forum.

“Now we want to expand our bilateral and political relations within the United Nations framework and other international organisations to exchange views on some of the hot topics on the international agenda,” he added.

He reiterated his country’s support for Ghana’s initiative to fight terrorism and organised crime under the Accra Initiative.

The visiting minister said members of his delegation, who come from sectors including information technology, chemical, pharmaceutical and education, had already signed memoranda of understanding with their Ghanaian counterparts.