Ayorkor Botchwey confers with Maltese counterpart

The Minister of Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration, Ms Shirley Ayorkor Botchwey, has said that trade and investment were necessary in driving national development and not aid.

“Trade and investments are very critical for creating jobs for our young people to help stem the tide of illegal migration. “We desperately need to create opportunities for young people.

We don’t want them to leave Africa; we need strong advocacy for the interests of young people in Africa, the Caribbean and the Pacific,” she added. The minister was speaking during a meeting with the Foreign Minister of Malta, Ian Borg, in the capital city of Malta, Valetta. Present was the Prime Minister of the country, Robert Abela.

She also paid a courtesy call on the President of Malta, Myriam Spiteri Debono. Ghana hosts the Mediterranean archipelago’s only diplomatic mission in Sub-Saharan Africa, which opened in January, 2023.

Priorities

Ghana’s top diplomat and candidate for the Commonwealth Secretary-General, Ms Botchwey, mentioned trade, investment, skills training and start-ups for the youth across the Commonwealth as her priorities for the 56-member Commonwealth with a population of 2.6 billion, nearly two-thirds of whom are below 30 years.

She said the Commonwealth “could punch above its weight,” citing the World Health Organisation’s (WHO) Health Worker Protocol, and the Highly-Indebted Poor-Country Initiative (HIPC) which gave relief to debt-stressed countries, as examples of what the organisation was capable of doing.

“The Commonwealth can rally its members towards raising critical financing to help build resilience among these vulnerable states,” Ms Botchwey said.

She cited the Pacific island nation of Kiribati whose highest point is a mere four metres above sea level as an example of a Commonwealth country facing what the minister called an “existential threat.”  

She said the collective voice of  “our commonwealth” must be engineered to make a difference. Ms Botchwey also paid a courtesy call on President Debono where she discussed the threat posed by climate change to small island states such as Malta and others in the Pacific, and in the Caribbean where Hurricane Beryl had left havoc in its trail some weeks ago.  

The minister, who served multiple terms as a legislator for the most populous constituency in Ghana, expressed satisfaction with the country’s relations with Malta.

 Mr Borg said: “Ghana is an important partner to us. We have 24 companies doing business in Ghana”. “They have no complaints; they are happy,” he added. Last year, Mr Borg led a 45-member delegation, most of them investors, during the opening of the High Commission of Malta in Accra.  

Ghana’s High Commission in Malta, established in 2014, is also the only fully fledged sub-Saharan diplomatic mission in Valetta. For his part, Prime Minister Abela said: “We should discuss Ghana and Africa in terms of trade and not aid.

“Unfortunately, Africa is often discussed in terms of migration. I think we should see Africa in terms of mutual opportunities; the potential is there,” he said.
Malta, a nation of 530,000 people, joined the European Union some 20 years ago.

By the month of May this year alone, over 800 migrants were reported to have died attempting to cross the Mediterranean, while last year, an estimated 3,100 reportedly lost their lives.  

Exchange of visits

Ghana and Malta have exchanged state visits in recent years, with President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo being received in Malta in 2019, and Ghana hosting President George William Vella in January this year, four months before retiring and handing over to President Debono, 71, for a five-year non-renewable term.