Ghana’s High Commissioner to the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland, Papa Owusu-Ankomah, has revealed the ongoing efforts to enhance and fortify the trade relationship between the two nations.
During an exclusive interview on JoyNews’ PM Express, Business Edition, the High Commissioner indicated the proactive steps taken to tackle challenges and bolster economic ties between Ghana and the United Kingdom.
He highlighted the establishment of the UK Ghana Business Council in 2018, which convenes biannually to engage in comprehensive discussions regarding trade priorities and challenges encountered by both countries.
The primary focus is to identify barriers to trade and to devise actionable strategies to overcome them.
“Recently too, at the last meeting in June, the UK, Ghana Investors Advisory Group was set up.It is supposed to focus on the private sector and then try and as it were, see if there are any bottlenecks to investment and trade, and then put in place or make recommendations to overcome these bottlenecks,” he highlighted on Thursday.
The High Commissioner noted that there is a mutual commitment of both nations to enhance their economic relationship, expand trade opportunities, and encourage investment for the benefit of both Ghana and the United Kingdom.
He acknowledged the substantial progress achieved in recent years and underscored the significance of the UK’s support to achieve its goal of fostering a more conducive environment for business and investment.
“So we are making the best effort on both sides to improve upon our economic relations and deepen economic relations, expand the areas of trade, business and investment for a win-win situation for both countries.
Acknowledging Ghana’s strengths in automotive, textiles and pharmaceuticals sectors, Mr Owusu-Ankomah insisted that the support of the UK government and its agencies was crucial to train business individuals in the said sectors and enable these skilled professionals to identify and explore markets in the United Kingdom effectively, thus facilitating increased exports of Ghanaian products.
“Of course, we’ve signed the Trade Partnership Agreement, in just early part of 2021 where you could have free access to markets in the UK. So a lot depends on us and with the support of the UK government.
We’ll try to then identify as I said, the bottlenecks and then enable our entrepreneurs in those particular areas to be able to export more to the United Kingdom,” he said.