Prez commends Ethiopia’s rapid transformation of capital
President John Dramani Mahama has expressed his admiration for the rapid transformation Addis Ababa, the Ethiopian capital, is going through.
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He said any visitor to Addis Ababa would be impressed with the giant strides being made in the modernisation of the capital, including the recent launch of the light rail transport system.
Proposing a toast at a dinner at the State House to officially welcome the Ethiopian Prime Minister, Mr Hailemariam Desalegn, to the country, President Mahama stated that sustained double digit economic growth and rapid transformation demonstrated how far visionary leadership could go when supported by a determined people.
“We shall keenly follow your progress as you go into the second phase of the growth and transformation plan, which is designed to lead Ethiopia into middle income status by 2025,” President Mahama said.
Mr Desalegn arrived in Accra last Thursday for a three-day state visit.
The Prime Minister is accompanied on the visit by his wife, Roman Tesfaye, and other government officials.
It is the second state visit to Ghana by an Ethiopian leader after Emperor Haile Selassie’s visit in December 1960.
Support
In conformity with the spirit and vision driving the shared agenda of the two countries, President Mahama pledged Ghana’s support for Ethiopia’s candidate for the post of Director General of the World Health Organisation (WHO), Dr Tedros Adhanom, and called on the other African countries to rally behind the candidate who is the Ethiopian Foreign Minister, as agreed at the last AU summit in January this year.
“Today, Ethiopia ranks as a major peacekeeping nation contributing troops to keep the peace around the world. It is for this reason that Ghana fully supports Ethiopia’s bid for a non-permanent membership of the UN Security Council,” he said.
Ghana-Ethiopia relations
President Mahama said the visit signified the shared determination of the two countries to transform their long-standing ties into concrete and meaningful cooperation through increased social and cultural engagements.
He indicated that Ghana shared a close friendship with Emperor Haile Selassie in the struggle to liberate the continent, saying that true to Ethiopia’s commitment to the Pan African vision and world peace, that country continued to play a leading role in brokering peace not only in the horn of Africa but throughout the continent.
Agreements
President Mahama alluded to a number of agreements the two countries had entered into and recalled that since January 2014, they had signed the general cooperation agreement, which covered more than 14 areas of interest and went further to sign subsidiary agreements in the fields of tourism, culture, communications, information and media.
He added that Ghana and Ethiopia also signed a Memorandum of Understanding on the establishment of a joint ministerial commission and underscored the need for the countries to work together to ensure that those arrangements translated into joint projects and programmes that would enrich the lives of their citizens.
He stated that year after year, since the founding of the Organisation of African Unity (OAU)—now the African Union (AU)— in May 1963, the government and people of Ethiopia had hosted member states in a hospitable and remarkably secure environment, which had earned that country the richly deserved honour of being the ‘capital of Africa.’
Prime Minister
Responding to the toast, Mr Desalegn said Ghana and Ethiopia had played a significant role in the long history of the continent and that the commitment of the two countries in the struggle against colonialism and apartheid throughout Africa and the promotion of pan Africanist vision were second to none.
The Ethiopian Prime Minister underscored the need for Africa to redouble its efforts in the economic sphere in line with the vision set out by Dr Nkrumah, saying that as a great pan-Africanist failure to do so could impair the political gain the continent had worked hard to achieve.
Mr Desalegn enumerated some challenges confronting the continent such as deep-rooted poverty, drought, instability, threats of terrorism, climate change and diseases but added that the picture was not gloomy as the continent for the first time was registering unprecedented economic growth, which no longer classified Africa as the Dark Continent but rather the rising continent.
Increase economic ties
The visiting premier spoke about excellent relations between the two countries dating back to the pre-independence era and said that Ghana was the first country to open an embassy in Ethiopia and described the country as Ethiopia’s dependable ally.
Mr Desalegn expressed concern that despite the long standing and cordial diplomatic relations between the two nations, much had not been done to develop economic ties and added that the level of investment and the volume of trade between them did not reflect the excellent political relations.
“It’s time to lift our economic relations to a point that will reflect the economic reality of our political relations. We have to encourage our businesses to establish links and exploit the potentials in areas we have a comparative advantage,” he added.
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