Amissah-Arthur Meets India's Veep On Ghana's Economy

THE Vice-President of India, Mr. Mohammad Hamid Ansari on Wednesday held talks with his Ghanaian counterpart Mr. Kwesi Bekoe Amissah-Arthur in New Delhi and reaffirmed India's commitment towards supporting Ghana's democratic processes and economic development.

According to him, India was duty bound to assist Ghana strengthen its various democratic institution to fully discharge their responsibilities towards deepening democracy in the country and also to enable them offer their expertise to countries in the West African sub-region.

He said India recognizes Ghana as an Island of peace in the sub-region and a bastion of democracy on the African continent and for which it will always do well to comprehensively support the country's well being and development.

The Indian Vice-President made the remarks when Mr. Amissah- Arthur paid a courtesy call on him to discuss issues of mutual interest between the two countries.

The call was part a programme lined up for the Ghanaian Vice-President who is in India to participate in the Indian Economic Forum which ends today "Thursday".

Mr. Amissah-Arthur on 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.

" 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 masses of 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 infrastructure sector such as rail and road transport to facilitate the evacuation of raw materials and finished products from their various destinations to the market centres and to the ports for export.

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 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 efforts undertaken by the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) to ensure that the country returned to normalcy and democratic rule.