President John Dramani Mahama yesterday expressed the desire and determination of Government to strengthen business relations between Ghana and France in the coming years.
He said although there had been existing relations in construction, natural resources and the sciences, more emphasis would be placed on the re-structuring of urban areas of Ghana, energy generation, education and the utmost development of technology. President Mahama said this when he visited Dassault Systems and GNPC-Techniq companies that had been playing vital roles in Ghana over the years.
While Dassault Systems had been engaged in training and general consultancy for the mining, oil and gas, water and eco-culture in Ghana, Techniq, on the other hand, had been working with the Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC) in the areas of oil and gas.
President Mahama advised Dassault Systems to collaborate with the Volta River Authority to simulate wind energy as another alternative to solving the energy challenges facing Ghana.
He expressed satisfaction with the intervention in gold, oil and gas co-operation, adding; “Ghana is a developing country with attendant urbanization challenges and we will, therefore, want you to do the simulation for us to solve those challenges in the country.”
At Techniq, President Mahama was taken round the pictorial projects that the company had collaborated with GNPC in Ghana to undertake, especially an orphanage it had adopted in Dodowa in the Eastern Region as part of its corporate social responsibility.
The company also displayed videos of some of the agreements it had signed with the GNPC and the projects it intended to execute for the next phase of the co-operation.
Mr Bernard Charles, Chief Executive Officer of Dassault Systems, who explained the company’s activities to President Mahama, said apart from Ghana, the outfit had over the years co-operated with 40 other countries.
He said Ghana Manganese, Persueus Mining, Newmont Ghana, Adamus Resources and African Mining Services were some of the companies they had worked with over the years.
“Over 200 people have been trained in software in Ghana each year to increase profitability, mining safety and general good working conditions in the mining and oil and gas industry,” he said.
President Mahama also visited the Headquarters of the International Organization of La Francophonie for a meeting with Mr Abdou Diouf, Secretary of the Organisation.
Although the meeting was held behind closed-doors, President Mahama was expected to deepen his determination to make learning of French a major principle, on account of the country’s geographical location among French speaking countries.
Source: GNA
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