Fiala described Ghana as one of the Czech Republic’s key trading partners in sub-Saharan Africa. Credit: vlada.cz.
Accra, Nov 10 (CTK special correspondent) – Czech Prime Minister Petr Fiala and Ghanaian Vice President Mahamudu Bawumia agreed to continue defence cooperation between the two countries at their meeting in Accra yesterday, and reaffirmed that Prague would supply L-39NG aircraft and Czech firearms to Ghana.
Fiala said he sees the mining and energy industries as new promising sectors for cooperation.
The Czech PM also delivered a speech to open the Ghanaian-Czech business forum yesterday. He described Ghana as one of the Czech Republic’s key trading partners in sub-Saharan Africa, but also said it was time to bring economic relations between the countries to a new level.
Fiala emphasised that Ghana was playing an important role in stabilising the entire region.
“The Czech Republic supplies military equipment to Ghana and is training pilots,” Fiala said at a meeting with Bawumia. “We are helping to modernise your armed forces. In this way, we are contributing to better security for your citizens. We now have two new projects: the delivery of six L-39NG aircraft and Czech-made rifles.”
Fiala praised Ghana as a country that had embraced economic reforms, which brought new opportunities. “The Czech Republic is building bridges and hospitals in Ghana, for example,” the prime minister said. He also proposed negotiations on new air transport agreements during his meeting with the vice president.
Czech doctors are working in Ghana as part of the MEDEVAC mission. Fiala’s agenda in Ghana also included a visit to the hospital and a meeting with MEDEVAC members who arrived in the country to perform complicated procedures and train their Ghanaian colleagues.
At yesterday’s business forum in Accra, nearly 20 companies from the Czech Republic were represented, mainly from the defence and healthcare sectors, and over 50 companies registered on the Ghanaian side.
Fiala presented the Czech Republic as a reliable, open country with a long tradition of quality manufacturing and a well-developed automotive and defence industry. He said that other successful industries in the Czech Republic include the engineering, information technology, advanced electronics, chemical and pharmaceutical industries.
Humphrey Ayim-Darke, President of the Association of Ghana Industries, said bilateral trade relations between the Czech Republic and Ghana dated back to the 1960s, and that the Czech Republic had contributed to the socio-economic development of his country. He added that he can see space for investment in Ghana, such as in the supply of agricultural equipment and new technologies.
This African country with a population of approximately 32 million is one of the five most important Czech trade partners in the region. Last year, Czech companies exported more than half a billion crowns worth of goods there, mainly building structures and other products made of metal, computer technology, but also prams, toys and medical and veterinary equipment, according to businessinfo.cz. In the opposite direction, Ghana sent fruit, rubber, cocoa, fish and wood to the Czech Republic.
Fiala arrived in Accra from Kenya on Wednesday, the penultimate stop on his week-long tour of sub-Saharan Africa. He flew to the Ivory Coast in the evening.
