German Chancellor to honour President’s invitation

The Chancellor of Germany, Angela Merkel will pay a working visit to Ghana in August on President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo’s invitation as part of her three nations Africa tour which would also take her to Nigeria and Senegal.
This was disclosed on Tuesday at a press conference in Accra by the German Ambassador to Ghana, Mr. Christoph Retzlaff who said the visit to Ghana would be the first of a German Chancellor to Ghana since 2004.
According to Mr. Retzlaff, Chancellor Merkel would be accompanied by the Federal Minister for Economic Cooperation and Development, Gerd Müller and a high-level business delegation.
He said the visit underlines the strong and deepening partnership between the two countries (Ghana and Germany) which would focus on economic cooperation and investment and business promotion in Ghana.
The visit would also be an opportunity to discuss and take stock of the G20 “Compact with Africa Initiative”, launched in June 2017 in Berlin under Germany´s G20 presidency which aims at bringing more private investment to the 10 African partner countries, among which Ghana is a front-runner.
The Ambassador added that Germany was supporting Ghana through long-standing development cooperation programmes as well as a new bilateral “Investment and Reform Partnership” launched in December 2017.
The cooperation brings an additional 100 million euros of German development funds to promote renewable energy and energy efficiency in Ghana, and to foster private investment into renewable energy as well as vocational training in the energy sector.
Mr. Retzlaff said another highlight of German-Ghanaian relations would be the “German African Business Summit (GABS)” in Accra from February 11-13, 2019.
Top business and government leaders from Germany and Sub-Saharan Africa meet every two years in Africa to promote economic relations between Europe´s largest economy and the fastest growing region in the world.
About 750 leaders, decision-makers, and business representatives are expected to participate.
The GABS a German signature business event in Africa is organized by the Sub-Saharan Initiative of German Business (SAFRI).
He said President Akufo-Addo had already met Chancellor Merkel on two occasions in Berlin in June 2017 and in February this year and noted that German President Steinmeier was also in Ghana for a state visit in December 2017.
Source: Ghana News Agency