Ghana, Russia commit to explore cooperation in migration, fisheries, others
The second session of the Ghana/Russia Joint Commission meeting opened in Accra yesterday, with the two countries resolving to explore relations in the areas of migration, fisheries hydro-carbon, atomic energy and agriculture.
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The meeting, being attended by experts from the two countries, is expected to come up with recommendations and instruments for Ghana and Russia to work on cooperation.
The session will also assess their economic and scientific cooperation, as well as technical diplomacy, and identify new avenues of cooperation, while fortifying existing ones.
As part of the session, the Deputy Minister of Natural Resources and Ecology of the Russian Federation and Head of the Federal Agency for Minerial Resources, Mr Evgeny Kiselev, paid a courtesy call on Ghana’s Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration, Mr Emmanuel Bombande, in Accra.
The first session of the Ghana/Russia Joint Commission meeting was held in Moscow in October 2014.
Ghana/Russia relations
During their interaction, Mr Bombande underscored the need for the two countries to sign an investment promotion and protection agreement (IPPA), as well as an agreement on the avoidance of double taxation.
“Ghana is strongly committed to enhancing the economic cooperation between our two countries. You will agree with me that there are great potentials yet to be exploited to improve our economic relations, notably the current level of commercial exchanges between our countries,” he added.
He said there were many investment opportunities in a wide range of areas in Ghana for Russian investors.
Mr Bombande named the areas to include agriculture and agro-processing, health and pharmaceuticals, oil and gas, manufacturing, mining, construction and infrastructural projects, energy generation, transportation, tourism, education and youth development projects.
He said although much had been achieved from the implementation of the conclusions reached at the first session in the area of nuclear energy, a lot more needed to be done to achieve the desired results.
For his part, Mr Kiselev said Russia considered Ghana as a very respected country in terms of bilateral relations.
He said Ghana played an important role in regional cooperation and so Russia appreciated the bilateral relations between the two countries.
He called on the two countries to ensure that the protocols derived from the joint commission would be implemented fully.
