Nii Osah Mills, the Minister of Lands and Natural Resources, has said Ghana and Finland must have greater socio-economic collaboration for their mutual benefits.
He said: “The two countries could cooperate in areas such as forestry and mining, especially in this era of low gold prices, where we are looking for low cost mining”.
Nii Osah Mills made these remarks, on Tuesday in Accra, when a high-powered Finish Delegation had discussions with officials at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration.
Led by Mr Matti Anttonen, the Under-Secretary of State for External Economic Relations, the Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Finland, it represents a wide range of companies.
It is in Ghana to explore business opportunities, strengthen the existing political relationships and further develop the economic ties between the two countries.
Nii Osah Mills hailed Finland for its excellent forest cover, which he said, had been well managed from generation to generation; and said Ghana could learn lessons from it.
He cited: “If Uruguay, a small country in Latin America could use 15 years to turn its forest cover from zero into a timber exporting nation, then there is so much more which we can do to save Ghana’s forest cover.
“The possibilities are there for us, and it shows that there is so much more that we, as a country, could do in the forestry sector, than we are doing now”.
Nii Osah said Germany was reportedly raking in a lot of revenue annually from its forestry sector and that was so incredible.
“On the other hand, Ghana is constantly losing its forest cover and the challenge is constant so we have a lot more to do to stop the situation,” he said.
He said somehow Ghana had to be able to get ’a hard core’ group of people like they had in Finland, where generations guarded the forests that their parents had planted and they even made it better.
“And they probably spend their whole life literally guarding it. Where are we going to get such people in this country?” he asked.
“We have to nurture our children; that is to let the children grow up with a kind of love for the forest.
“You can plant a forest but if there is no one dedicated to keep it and to fight for it, it will go away,” the Minister stated.
Nii Osah Mills stated that at the turn of the century Ghana had 8.2 million hectares of forest cover, which had within 15 years dwindled to 4.6 million hectares.
“We have to somehow get that dedicated cadre of the youth to buy into forest plantation, buy into ownership of forest and to literally guard the forest with their lives,” he stated.
On his part, Mr Anttonen lauded the excellent relationship that had existed between the two countries for a long period, but explained that, Finland did not have big mining companies as other European nations did, but it had several good technology providers to work with.
He said Finland was one of the most forested countries in the world having some 23 million hectares: three-fourth of the land area (76 per cent) under forests.
On how Finland had been able to maintain an excellent forest cover, he said their forest model merged conservation and economic models, with the aim of maintaining the forest in a better shape than previous times.
“The forest sector in Finland provides livelihood for many people and has a very bright future,” he said.
Mrs Pirjo Suomela-Chowdhury, the Finland Ambassador to Ghana and Nigeria, said the aim of the visit of the delegation was to promote strong trade and economic cooperation; for a win-win situation for both countries.
Mrs Edith Hazel, Ghana’s Ambassador to Denmark and Finland, said Ghanaians were interested in getting investors into the Ghana for a win-win relationship.
Mr Kwabena Mintah Akandoh, the Deputy Minister for Lands and Natural Resources in-charge of Mining, called for the promotion of technical and economic cooperation between the two countries.
Source: GNA