Swiss Ambassador calls on Vice President

Mr Gerhard Brugger, the new Swiss Ambassador has met with Vice President Kwesi Amissah-Arthur in Accra to strength bilateral relations.

Mr Brugger said Ghana and Switzerland have maintained good and long-standing relations which has been fruitful for both countries.

He said the focal points of the relations have been the flourishing trade, particularly in cocoa and the Swiss government's support programme for the country

Responding, Vice President Amissah-Arthur stated that government has concluded the first part of its discussions with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) team which was in the country recently.

He said the discussion of the government’s team with the IMF was for technical and financial support to bring confidence to the Ghanaian economy and not a bailout as being speculated in the sections of the society.

He said later in the year the government’s team would follow up with further discussions with the IMF officials in Washington D.C in the United States.

Ghana is one of Switzerland's three most important trade partners in sub-Saharan Africa: in 2011 Switzerland had a volume of trade with Ghana amounting to CHF136 million with CHF98 million in imports and CHF38 million in exports.

Ghana is, in particular, Switzerland's most important supplier of cocoa and its second most important supplier of pineapple.

As a result of the large volume of cocoa imports approximately 90 per cent of all imports, Switzerland has had a trade deficit with Ghana for many years amounting to CHF91 million in 2010.

Swiss exports to Ghana consist largely of machinery, in particular equipment for food processing-grain processing, cocoa, chocolate and pharmaceutical products.

Switzerland is now one of the 20 most important countries of origin for investments in Ghana.