President John Agyekum Kufuor on Friday honoured the out-going Netherlands Ambassador in Ghana, Mr Alexander Heldring with the State Honour of Grand Medal, (Honorary Division) at a brief ceremony at the Castle, Osu.
It was during a farewell call on President Kufuor by Mr Heldring who is leaving Ghana after a five-year duty tour. Decorating Mr Heldring, President Kufuor said Mr Heldring was being honoured for his immense contribution to the improvement and strengthening of the bilateral relationship between the two countries.
He said last year, Mr Heldring was very instrumental in the provision of an 80 million-dollar assistance from the Netherlands to Ghana, which enabled the government to implement some of its policies and programmes.
President Kufuor asked Mr Heldring who is going on retirement to be an ambassador of Ghana in the Netherlands, because Ghana required more assistance from friendly developed countries that had supported democratic development in the country and government's determination to make Ghana the gateway in the West African sub-region.
Mr Heldring overwhelmed by the honour said it was not for him alone but his wife, Frauke and staff of the embassy who were loyal and assisted him to accomplish his mission in Ghana.
He said, "The honour is a complete surprise to me. It is a sign of appreciation on your part of the kind of relations between both countries". The citation was read by Mr Hackman Owusu-Agyemang, Minister of Foreign Affairs.
It said Mr Heldring joined the Foreign Service in Netherlands in 1970 and between 1983-87 was the Permanent Representative of his country in the United Nations (UN).
The citation said between 1990-94, Mr Heldring was Netherlands Ambassador in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso as well as Tokyo, Japan from 1994-97.
It said during the tenure of Mr Heldring in Ghana from 1997-2002, there was much improvement in the bilateral relations between the two countries especially in the fields of agriculture, forestry and education.
