The Ambassador - Message
Dear Visitor,
Welcome – Akwaaba – to the homepage of the German Embassy! Our Embassy team is pleased to provide you with information on German-Ghanaian relations and also to introduce you to some of the Embassy’s activities. The information package also includes some practical notes from the business-, legal and consular sectors as well as from the health service and advice for travellers in Ghana.
On 6 March 2009 Ghana celebrated its 52nd Anniversary of Independence. That date also marks the inception of Ghanaian-German relations which have grown from strength to strength comprising all areas of cooperation. The large number of visits on high and highest political levels also testify to the excellent quality of our relations.
The conduct of Parliamentary and Presidential elections of December 2008 again demonstrated that the process of sixteen years of democratic rule in Ghana has reached an impressive degree of maturity. The new government of H.E. Prof. John Evans Atta Mills from the National Democratic Congress (NDC) who assumed office on January 7, 2009 repeatedly gave assurance of its intention to maintain the trustful cooperation with the Federal Republic of Germany.
Ghana plays an important role for Germany in the dialogue with African states. It is moreover a priority country for bilateral development cooperation. During the bilateral government negotiations in September 2007, Germany committed an amount of 53 Mio Euro for various projects for the two subsequent years. The next bilateral government negotiations are scheduled for December 2009. The German implementing organisations who are well-known and well-established in Ghana are German Development Cooperation GTZ, Kreditanstalt für Wiederaufbau KfW, German Development Service DED, Center for International Migration and Development CIM, Capacity Building International InWEnt; they were joined by the Deutsche Investitions- und Entwicklungsgesellschaft DEG in June 2008. In this context it is also important to mention the long tradition of engagement of German churches and mission societies in developmental and charitable work. Germany as the biggest contributor to the European Development Fund has been a substantial stakeholder during the many years of engagement in the field of economic cooperation between the European Union and Ghana.
Commercial ties between Ghana and Germany still offer room for improvement. The successful activities of the Ghanaian-German Economic Association GGEA in Accra and the Afrika Verein in Hamburg play an important role not only for the involvement of German companies in Ghana but also for the consolidation of the Ghanaian economy.On this background, the German Chamber of Commerce and Industry DIHK intends to convert the GGEA into a Delegate Office of German Industry and Commerce which would ultimately become an International Chamber of Commerce and Industry. In November 2007, Ghana and the Federal State of Northrhine-Westphalia entered into a partnership agreement. It is hoped that the agreement will further enhance economic ties.
In the framework of our cultural cooperation our two countries carry out joint projects in the fields of research and education, the media, language training, in sports and in many more areas. The Goethe Institut in Accra looks back at almost fifty years of successful work in Ghana. It is a cultural magnet and offers a forum for Germans as well as for Ghanaians interested in German language and culture. The German political foundations, the German Academic Exchange Service DAAD and Deutsche Welle closely cooperate with the Ghanaian government, the media, civil society and the population in general. All of them contribute in various aspects to our excellent bilateral partnership and thus create an enabling environment for a successful exchange and a deep and sustained friendship between the German and the Ghanaian nations.
Finally, I wish you a profitable visit to our website. Last but not least, I also invite you to take a look at the virtual publication created in 2007 on the occasion of fifty years of German-Ghanaian relations which still makes interesting reading.
Yours sincerely
Eberhard Schanze
Ambassador of the Federal Republic of Germany