Last Friday, in Accra, a first-ever ceremony was held to commemorate the almost 70 years of friendship and bilateral ties betweenGhana and India.
Dubbed: ‘India-Ghana Partnership Day’, the ceremony afforded the two countries the opportunity to reaffirm their commitment to work together to scale-up bilateral relations for their mutual benefit.
They also expressed their commitment to strengthen political, economic, cultural and multilateral-level partnerships, while advancing collaboration in areas such as arts and culture, medicine, security, agriculture, technology, cyber security and education.
The celebration brought together dignitaries, including Members of Parliament (MPs), traditional leaders, state officials and members of the business community, at the residence of the Indian High Commissioner in Accra.
They included the National Security Minister, Albert Kan-Dapaah; the Volta Regional Minister, Dr Archibald Yao Letsa; a Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration, Kwaku Ampratwum-Sarpong; the Agbogbomefia of the Asogli State, Togbe Afede XIV; a member of the Council of State, Sam Okudzeto; the MP for Tema West, Carlos Ahenkorah, and some alumni of the Indian Technical and Economic Cooperation (ITEC).
India-Ghana Day will be celebrated annually to bring together stakeholders to discuss issues concerning both countries for their mutual benefit.
Strong bond
Addressing the gathering, the Indian High Commissioner to Ghana, Sugandh Rajaram, said India and Ghana had enjoyed intense bilateral relations for years, adding that India had been supporting Ghana’s development by providing assistance in developmental projects through the provision of lines of credit (LoC) and grants.
“In the last two decades, we have extended more than half a billion dollars of concessional credit to Ghana for development projects and another half a billion dollars for new projects for critical infrastructure,” he said.
Mr Rajaram said India had entered a critical phase of its development trajectory in the next 25 years and expressed the hope that it would scale up the economic relationship between Ghana and India to new heights.
“We are looking at building a new economic India and the element to achieve that is to focus on small and medium enterprise capacity expertise to transform the economy through the use of new technologies,” he said.
He said a strong partnership with Ghana was critical to take charge of issues concerning the global south at the global level.
“Our developmental partnership with developing countries is also to ensure that the rich resources of Africa are used for the development of African countries through capacity building,” he added.
He thanked stakeholders of the two countries for partnering not only in the political and the economic spheres but also among the people of societies.
Development
Mr Ampratwum-Sarpong, for his part, said the celebration was timely, as it offered the two countries the opportunity to raise awareness of the collaborative endeavours between them, while taking stock of collective achievements and challenges.
He said Ghana had benefited from various training programmes and educational opportunities in diverse fields through the ITEC, which was established in 1964 to build the capacity of India’s friendly international partners, including Ghana.
He thanked the businesses and leaders of the Indian community for partnering Ghanaian businesses and contributing significantly to Ghana’s economy and expressed Ghana’s readiness to work with them to develop both countries.
