Ghana, Korea Strengthen Relations

Ghana's Minister for Finance and Economic Hon. Kwadwo Baah-Wiredu has urged Korea to seriously consider its expanding exports from Ghana. This he said will make the fast expanding bi-lateral trade relations between the two countries proper.

The Minister made this remarks at a seminar jointly organized by the Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning and the Korea Embassy in Accra today, under a theme: “Korea Economic Development and Information Technology (IT) Industry”.

Hon. Baah-Wiredu pointed out that, one very important area in which Ghana and Korea can co-operate is the IT sector. He however added that, South Korea today is one of the most technologically advanced countries in the world.

He assured Korean companies that, the Government of Ghana will do everything possible to clear all legal and administrative hurdles necessary to be surmounted to make that possible. He also asked Ghanaian producers to endeavour to produce goods that are of interest to Korea and to sustain the supply of goods to that country.

The Minister noted that, some Korean firms have visited the country to explore the possibility of training tradesmen in the automotive and allied industries in Ghana for export to Korea to work on contract.

Touching on education, the Minister urged the Korean authorities to develop a programme that will expose IT, Business Processing Outsourcing (BPO) and other science and technology student in Ghana to IT and engineering companies in Korea through short-term attachments. He said bi-lateral relations between Ghana and Korea have grown steadily since the two countries first established diplomatic relations in1977.

“Undoubtedly, one of the fastest growing areas in the relations between the countries is trade. The value of trade between Ghana and Korea grew by 77 percent between January 1998 and Novermber, 2005”, he said.

His Excellency Lee Sang-Pal, Korean Ambassador to Ghana, in his submission stated that, Korea is regarded as a success model in areas of poverty reduction and economic development but if she remains complacent, however, she will not be able to respond to challenges ahead.

He said the raid pace of change in the world economy requires changes in policies and stressed that, the Korean government is making every effort to respond to such challenges and changes in those regards.