The Vice-President of India, Mr Mohammad Hamid Ansari has re-affirmed India’s commitment towards supporting Ghana’s democratic processes and economic development.
According to him, India was committed to assist Ghana strengthen its various democratic institutions to fully discharge its responsibilities towards deepening democracy in the country and also to enable it to offer its expertise to countries in the West African sub-region.
He said India recognised Ghana as an island of peace in the sub-region and a bastion of democracy on the African continent and for which reason India would always do well to comprehensively support the country’s wellbeing and development.
Courtesy call
The Indian Vice-President made the remarks when Vice-President Amissah- Arthur paid a courtesy call on him to discuss issues of mutual interest between the two countries last Wednesday.
The call was part of activities lined up for Mr Amissah-Arthur, who is in India to participate in the Indian Economic Forum which ended yesterday.
SMEs
Mr Amissah-Arthur, for his part, commended the Indian government for its immense support to Ghana in the areas of agriculture and industry, especially in the Small and Medium Scale Enterprises (SMEs).
” We are indeed very grateful to the Indian government for helping us to revamp the Komenda Sugar Factory which will go a long way to provide employment for the people, as well as reduce considerably, the country’s huge bill on sugar imports,” the Vice-President said.
He, however, called for increased investment from India in the infrastructural sector such as rail and road transport to facilitate the evacuation of raw materials and finished products from their various locations to the market centres and to the ports for export.
Ebola scourge
Mr Amissah-Arthur briefed the Indian Vice-President on the Ebola scourge and steps which had been taken by countries in the sub-region, international bodies and the global community to contain the disease which had claimed thousands of lives in the region.
He said since there was “no Chinese Wall between Africa and the rest of the world,” it was the bounden duty of the International Community to rally behind the sub-region to contain the disease which had dislocated the economies of the affected countries.
Mr Amissah-Arthur also explained to his host, developments which led to the resignation of former President Blaise Compaore of Burkina Faso and measures being put in place by the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) to ensure that the country returned to normalcy and democratic rule.
Source: Daily Graphic
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