Ghana's Ambassador to Austria presents credentials

Accra, Dec. 20, GNA - Mr Kwabena Baah-Duodu, Ambassador of Ghana to Switzerland and Permanent Representative to the UN Office in Geneva, who is concurrently accredited to Austria, has presented his Credentials to the Federal President of Austria, Dr Heinz Fischer.

A statement from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Accra on Wednesday said in a discussion following the presentation, Dr Fischer thanked Ghana for its support for Austria's bid for a non-permanent seat in the United Nations (UN) Security Council.

He said his country would reciprocate Ghana's gesture at the appropriate time.

Mr Baah-Duodu noted the cordial relations that had existed between Ghana and Austria since the mid-1960s and stressed the need to translate those relations into productive economic and technical cooperation. He underscored the resurgence of Ghana's economy, which he attributed to the present Government's prudent policies but observed that those efforts by the Government required assistance from its development partners to propel the country into a middle-income status by 2015, as envisaged by Government.

Mr Baah-Duodu pledged to work with his Austrian collaborators to intensify the cooperation.

At a reception organized in Vienna later in the evening to mark the occasion, Mr Baah-Duodu said the seriousness with which the Government of Ghana had tackled the economic problems of the country so far had demonstrated its determination to create a congenial investment climate for the flow of foreign direct investment and other private capital inflows from foreigners and Ghanaians, both local and abroad, into the country.

He, therefore, called on Austrian and Ghanaians in the Diaspora investors to seriously consider Ghana as the most viable and profitable investment destination in Africa.

Mr Baah-Duodu had earlier presented his credentials to the Director-General of the United Nations Office in Vienna (UNOV), Mr Antonio Maria Costa; the Deputy Director-General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); Madam Anna-Marie Cetto, the Executive Secretary of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBTO); Mr Tabor Toth and the Director-General of the United Nations Industrial Development Organisation, Mr Kandeh K. Yumkella.