By Francis Ntow
Accra, April 16, GNA – Ghana and Germany have given a boost to their bilateral relations for increased mutual economic benefits, this time, focusing more on the automotive sector.
The two countries on Monday, April 15, held their second meeting since the establishment of the Ghana-Germany Business Council in 2019 – to provide accelerated solutions to business and trade bottlenecks in both countries.
The meeting also explored trade regulations and industrialisation, with Ghana wooing German businesses to invest and partner with Ghanaian counterparts under the government’s flagship One District-One Factory (1D1F) initiative.
Delegates from the Association of Automobile Assemblers Association of Ghana, Association of Ghana Industries (AGI), and the Ghana National Chamber of Commerce and Industry (GNCCI), as well as envoys from the German business community attended the meeting.
According to the Ghana Investment Promotion Centre (GIPC), Germany is Ghana’s eighth largest European export market, and among the top 10 sources of investments, with a €2.13 billion contribution to the country’s development.
Providing some details to the media after the meeting, Nana Ama Dokua Asiamah-Adjei, Deputy Minister of Trade and Industry, noted that the focus was on expanding the automotive industry, and value addition.
That, she said, was to ensure the completion of any outstanding agreement and scaleup component manufacturing to help “prevent the excessive importation of all the parts that are needed to be able to manufacture here [in Ghana].”
“We’re going to ensure that they get all the policy incentives that attracted them to get in here, and then, we’re able to expand, and do business as we envisage,” the Deputy Trade and Industry Minister said.
Indicating that Ghana’s doors were opened to the private sector, she encouraged German companies and investors to consider the country as a major destination to do business, capitalising on opportunities for industrialisation.
She stated that the world had reached a point that everyone was looking for other opportunities from other parts of the world, including Ghana, which had positioned itself as an industrial hub for all countries.
Nana Asiamah-Adjei said the partnership would incorporate the empowerment of the private sector and attract more investments for value addition under the 1D1F initiative to create more sustainable jobs for Ghanaians.
“We would want them to partner us with the 1D1F and strategic anchor industries to see how we can increase our industrial setup and value addition, and to also take advantage of the various preferential trade agreements,” she said.
Mr Udo Jürgen Philipp, the State Secretary for the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action, noted that Ghana was the only country in Sub-Saharan Africa with a joint business council with Germany.
He said that was so because “Ghana is a very good partner for our German businesses, and we’re coming here as German government to enhance this relationship to help our companies to do business in Ghana.”
He said the meeting had afforded both parties, the opportunity to address a few issues in the automotive sector, local content rules, and the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) initiative.
Mr Udo Philipp said the hosting of the AfCFTA Secretariat had made Ghana “a very attractive business hub”, and stated Germany’s readiness to deepen economic relations with the country and ensure that challenges were addressed for mutual benefit.
GNA