Ghana to open 16 new Consulates

Ghana is to open 16 new honorary consulates in Sydney, Zurich, Milan, Bangkok, Lubliana, Karachi, Brunei Darussalam, Slovakia and Montreal.

The rest are Kingston, Maastricht, Bamako, Bucharest, Eilat, Casablanca and Libreville, President John Agyekum Kufuor said in a speech read on his behalf at a two-day conference on Ghana Foreign Policy options in Accra on Thursday.

These consulates and other missions abroad have been directed to pay prompt attention to Ghanaians and as much as possible handle consular services within 48 hours.

"I expect to see strategic plans by each Mission to promote trade, tourism and investment. I also expect to see investment or tourists or all the three types of delegations coming from every single country where we have diplomatic presence each year."

President Kufuor said it was his government's determination that Ghana should play its role to make ECOWAS an effective regional bloc and a central organ for the maintenance of peace and security.

"This is why we're vigorously supporting peace efforts in Sierra Leone and within the Mano River area at a great cost to the nation," he said, adding that it was to boost these efforts that his government increased peacekeeping duty allowances to Ghanaian troops serving on such missions.

The conference, organised jointly by Legon Centre for International Affairs (LECIA) and the Foreign Ministry, is aimed at exploring Ghana's foreign policy options and is being attended by some 200 participants mostly serving and retired foreign service officers, members of the academia, politicians and military chiefs.

President Kufuor said while his government continued to value Ghana's membership of the Non-Aligned Movement, its hopes were that the Movement must now be turned into an association for mutual economic assistance and self-advancement and an epitome of south-south co-operation.

"It still remains a collective voice for the weak states and a potential defence bloc for the protection of developing countries."

The United Nations also needs restructuring to reflect current realities of global power, equity and justice, President Kufour said, adding that permanent members of the Security Council must be more representative.

The President said government has decided on a deliberate policy of sponsoring qualified Ghanaians to occupy high positions in international organisations.

He said the necessary consultations and legislation have been set in motion to ensure that qualified Ghanaians could vote at the country's missions abroad.

President Kufuor made reference to his trips abroad and said they were aimed at forging closer co-operation, which have started reaping positive results.

"One of the immediate results of these visits was the decision to open the Ghana/Togo border for 24 hours to help with the implementation of the ECOWAS protocol of free movement of goods and people between our countries.

"Nigeria agreed to supply oil on concessionary terms while Cote d'Ivoire is currently discussing favourable terms of recovering debts owed to it by the Volta River Authority (VRA) arising from electricity exports to Ghana."