Norway, very useful partner - Prez Mahama (audio)
President John Mahama has acknowledged the enormous support the Norwegian government has offered to Ghana over the years, describing Norway as “a very useful partner”.
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He said Norway had provided more than $6 million from its Oil for Development Fund to support capacity building in Ghana’s Energy Commission, the Petroleum Commission and the Ministry of Energy and Petroleum to deal with any environmental hazard in the oil and gas industry.
“Today, Ghana’s oil industry is growing and it is held up in Africa as one of the promising oil and gas industries in terms of transparency and accountability,” President Mahama said at a dinner hosted by the Norwegian Prime Minister, Ms Erna Solberg, last Wednesday.
Listen to Prez Mahama in the attached audio below
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He said much of what Ghana had done so far in respect of legislation and regulations governing its oil industry had generously been contributed by Ghana’s partnership with Norway.
The President described his visit to Norway as very useful and expressed the hope that it would further strengthen the partnership between the two countries.
“I believe that the people of Ghana and Norway have shared values of democracy, constitutional governance and respect for human rights and that is the reason the relationship between our two countries continues to grow,” he said.
Bilateral relations
President Mahama said Ghana appreciated Norway very much because of the bilateral cooperation and assistance that Norway continued to give Ghana, “with absolutely no strings attached”.
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He said Ghana, as a lower middle-income country, was open for business and Norway had many comparative advantages that Ghana could take advantage of for their mutual benefit.
The President expressed the hope that his visit to Norway would open the opportunity for many Norwegian business people to invest in Ghana.
Ebola
He commended Norway for its help, particularly to West Africa with regard to the containment of the Ebola outbreak.
“We believe that containing Ebola can be done by assisting the countries affected to fight the outbreak, instead of ostracising them and building ourselves into a shell,” he said.
MDGs
President Mahama said Ghana had done well with the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).
“With the whole world working on achieving the MDGs, from 2000 we have made significant progress in moving many people out of poverty. We are looking forward to the new targets that will be set after 2015,” he said.
The President said working together would make the world a better place for all, stressing, “I believe that is what you are doing in Norway and that is what we can learn from you in the partnership that we have together”.