Sudan Ambassador commends Graphic

The Sudanese Ambassador to Ghana, Mr Babikir  Elsiddig Mohamed Elamin, has lauded the Graphic Communication Group Limited (GCGL)  for adhering strictly to professional standards.

He said he admired in particular, the way its flagship newspaper, the Daily Graphic, balanced  national interest stories  with all other kinds of interests in the newspaper.

The Daily Graphic, he said, was  therefore, playing a deserving role in nation building by reflecting societal issues as well as enriching  political discourse in the country.

The ambassador, who  paid a courtesy call on the Editor of the Daily Graphic  last Tuesday,  generally said the media landscape  in the country was vibrant, powerful and dynamic.

He said most people, including himself,  learnt  a lot about the country from the Daily Graphic that one could not get from books.

Sunday newspapers

Mr Elamin, who also  had  a stint with the media,  however, expressed surprise that most newspapers in the country did  not hit the news-stand on Sundays.

He said more people would have preferred to relax on Sundays reading newspapers as pertained in other parts of the world.

The Ambassador explained that  on Sundays, the newspaper could come with investigative stories dealing with big issues to attract more readership.

Ghana, Sudan bilateral relations

Mr Elamin added that Ghana and Sudan  had  a lot to learn from each other in their  bilateral relationship.

He said his priority areas included  trade, education and culture since Ghana and his country had  cultural similarities, especially the people of Ashanti and the Nubi people of South/West Sudan, which ought to be explored.

The Ambassador said  researchers and scientists had realised  that the Sudan civilisation was  a unique African Kush  civilisation and not an extension of the  Egyptian civilisation.

He said the government of Sudan was bent on modernising the iron ore mines and bring them back to production to diversify its  economy  of oil and gold production.

According to Mr Elamin, Sudan was the  third largest producer of gold after South Africa and  Ghana  on the African continent, and that was why the potential was  huge for real  bilateral ties with Ghana.

He said the Joint Permanent Commission between Sudan and Ghana recently met in Khartoum and  adopted seven broad co-operation agreements  which included trade, business, tourism, culture and sports.

The Ambassador said six Memorandums of Understanding (MOU) were signed on higher  education, mining, oil ,gas and agriculture as well as  customs duties.

The Editor of the Daily Graphic, Mr Ransford Tetteh, said most Sunday newspapers in the country had folded up because of the lack of reading culture in the  country,adding that people did not buy newspapers on Sundays.

He, however, said that the management had  decided to increase the pages of the Saturday issue of the  Daily Graphic to cater for the  needs of readers at weekends.

On bilateral trade, Mr Tetteh called on Ghana and Sudan to explore more ways of deepening the bilateral relationship for the two countries  to increase trade and businesses among  their citizens.

Potential of business diplomacy

He said the big conglomerates started as small scale businesses or family ventures,  and Africans ought to start from somewhere. He urged ambassadors of developing countries to explore the potential of business diplomacy.