Enter into active partnership-Ghana's Trade Minister

Local businesses need to enter into partnerships with their foreign counterparts to improve international trade, the Trade Minister has said.

Government has been pursuing the agenda of export-led growth strategy.

“Our commitment to encourage the export sector, improve the competitiveness of our local industries and products as well as the competitiveness of the country as a business destination, is very much complemented by encouraging Ghanaian private sector business people to enter into active and focused engagement with foreign investor counterparts,” Hannah Tetteh, Minister of Trade and Industry, told a Moroccan investment delegation in Accra.

The investment team was on a trade road-show to four African countries seeking partnerships in the areas of agri-business, information and communication technology, among others.

The delegation also met their Ghanaian counterparts to explore ways to deepen bilateral trade ties for the mutual benefit of both countries.

Ms. Tetteh revealed that trade between the two countries is skewed in favour of Morocco and that Ghana requires more efforts to bridge the widening trade deficit.
Ghana’s imports from Morocco on average accounted for goods amounting to US$60million annually, while its exports to the North African country averaged US$3million.

“The two countries need to enhance the level of trade and to identify the best ways through which to link up the business communities, facilitate efforts to develop and grow existing businesses and capacities as well as improve on the livelihoods of their peoples.

“Morocco has remained an important partner of Ghana in both political and trade relations since independence. History shows that our mutual interest and benefit in trade, tradable goods and cultural exchanges have been enduring for centuries,” Ms. Tetteh remarked.

Abdelatif Mazzouz, Morocco’s Minister of Foreign Trade, appealed for the establishment of a convention for the Avoidance of Double Taxation between the two countries, and the activation of the Agreement of the Promotion and the Reciprocal Protection of Investments the two countries signed in 2005.

He said the promotion of a bilateral economic partnership between the two countries requires the involvement of Moroccan and Ghanaian private sector players, and stressed the need for establishment of a legal framework in the fields of air and maritime transport.

“The Kingdom of Morocco gives great importance to the reforms conducted by Ghana, and that the country is a beacon of stability in the region. Its process of democratisation of public life is a model on the African continent.

“Morocco is the second investor on the African continent, with a budget of US$582million in 2010, indicating nearly 91 percent of Moroccan direct investment abroad.

“Almost 56 percent of this investment was carried out within the ECOWAS States, whilst the aggregate Moroccan investments made in the last five years amounted to US$1.7billion,” he remarked.