By Iddi Yire, GNA
Accra, Feb 21, GNA-President John Dramani Mahama and Madam Angela Rayner, the British Deputy Prime Minister, on Friday reiterated their commitment to deepening bilateral ties between the two countries.
They made the commitment during Madam Rayner’s courtesy call at the Presidency in Accra.
President Mahama said there was not going to be any change in Ghana’s foreign policy towards the UK. “We even want to work to move our relations to an even higher level,” he said.
“It’s a good visit because you’re the first really high-level visitor we’re receiving since the inauguration.”
President Mahama said it was not a coincidence that such a high-level visit to Ghana was from the UK; saying “it shows the kind of relations that we share”.
“We have a lot of bilateral cooperation that we want to look at and see how we can align some of those things to fit the vision of the new Government,” he said.
He said Ghana would be engaging the UK’s representatives to see what areas of cooperation they were already having, how they could push them faster, and then see how they could align some of those to fit the vision of the new Government.
He noted that Ghana was going through economic crisis that was known by everybody, and that the country was in an International Monetary Fund (IMF) programme and one of the things the IMF programme enjoined Ghana to do was to be prudent in terms of its fiscal discipline and to make sure that they were able to come out of the crisis and bring growth and create prosperity.
The President said Ghana had a young, growing population, and so one of the key issues that came up strongly in the election was jobs.
“And so working together to see how we can bring in more investments, especially considering that we’re shut out of the international credit markets, to bring in more foreign direct investment to be able to create jobs for young people is one of the things that we’re going to be focusing on,” he said
The President said with the history of British companies investing in Ghana, they had got a long tradition; adding that how they could display the opportunities that were still available in Ghana and bring more British companies in to partner Ghana.
He said they were living in an unpredictable world where relations between countries were becoming very transactional.
“And we have the issue of the freeze in assistance from the United States,” he stated.
“We’re trying to make our own budgetary adjustments to make up for the shortfall of some $156 million. And so, it’s something that we can adjust the budget to fit.”
President Mahama hoped the rest of Ghana’s partners would continue to maintain the cooperation that they had or even lift the level of cooperation to continue to assist the vulnerable in their society.
On her part, Madam Angela Rayner congratulated President Mahama on his victory in the Ghana’s December 7, 2024, general election.
She said it was an honour and a privilege to be in Ghana and to be one of the first to visit President Mahama on his victory and applauded President Mahama’s proposed24-hour economy.
The Deputy Minister said they had a mutual aspiration for both economies of the UK and Ghana and expressed the hope that the UK and Ghana could achieve things together; as the UK Government was aligned on growth with Ghana’s Government focused on growth to create jobs to improve living standards.
“So we will be there as friends, as we always have been, to support and make sure that both our economies can grow for people on the ground to see jobs that fulfill their family life. And that is what we want to achieve,” Madam Rayner said.
She said, she was looking forward to deepening the relations that both of their countries had had through President Mahama’s Government and her UK Government.
GNA.