The Vice-President, Dr Mahamudu Bawumia, has said Ghana will deepen ties with Guyana for the mutual benefit of the two countries.

“We want to see the cooperation between Ghana and Guyana go beyond oil and gas to the sharing of experiences in the areas of agriculture, industrialisation, real estate, health and digitisation which Ghana has embarked upon,” he said.

Dr Bawumia was speaking during bilateral discussions with his Guyanese counterpart, Mr Bharrat Jagdeo, who was on a three-day official visit to the country, in Accra last Friday.

Mr Jagdeo and members of his delegation were in the country to learn about Ghana’s experiences in the oil and gas sector, with particular reference to local content and participation, the legal framework and best practices in the exploration and exploitation of hydrocarbon find — discovered on a large scale in 2015.

Agreements

Dr Bawumia said the visit was also to build on agreements that had been reached over the years, culminating in mutual visa exceptions and a memorandum of understanding (MoU) on mutual investments and cooperation, including air service agreement.

He said there were also a couple of technical cooperation issues which had been agreed upon but were yet to be signed, as well as technical assistance in the oil and gas industry on which the Ghana team was developing an MoU for more discussions.

The Vice-President expressed Ghana’s readiness to share its experiences in oil and gas with Guyana, as the latter embarked on the journey to build on the massive oil find in that country.

He traced the long-standing relations between the two nations from the days of slavery to the period of Ghana’s independence, saying that the names, cultures and natural resources found in both countries were almost similar.

“We are building a Ghana Beyond Aid to make our economy and country more self-reliant,” he said.

Dr Bawumia commended Guyana for supporting Ghana to get on to the UN Security Council.

Consolidation of ties

For his part, Mr Jagdeo said it was time to give meaning to South-South relations by concretising agreements and moving deep into areas of investment and trade, as well as people-to-people contact.

He said given the emerging opportunities in the oil and gas industry, in particular, that industry could be a catalyst for the flow of trade and investment between the two countries.

According to him, Ghana was a great inspiration to the struggle for Guyana’s independence and singled out Dr Kwame Nkrumah’s personal role in bringing parties together for the attainment of Guyana’s independence.

As part of the visit, officials of the Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC), the Petroleum Commission (PC), the Ghana Gas Company, the Energy Commission and other stakeholders in the energy sector shared ideas and experiences with their Guyanese counterparts.

Source: peacefmonline.com