UK Parliamentary delegation calls on Okyenhene

Kyebi, Sept 15, GNA - Osagyefo Amotia Ofori Panin, the Okyenhene, has appealed to the United Kingdom Parliament to consider extending more technical assistance to developing nations like Ghana that are grappling with the negative effects of globalisation.

He told a visiting a seven-member United Kingdom Parliamentary delegation that paid a courtesy call on him at the Ofori Panin Fie at Kyebi Thursday that while globalisation held sway worldwide its uneven trading platform was contributing to the increase in poverty levels in developing nations instead of helping to decrease it. The Parliamentary delegation was on a reciprocal visit to Ghana under the aegis of the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association (CPA). Mr Felix Owusu-Agyapong, the Minister of Parliamentary Affairs, led the delegation comprising Lord Steel of Aikwood, a Member of the UK House of Lords as well as five Labour MPs in the House of Commons. They are Mr David Borrow, Mr Lyn Brown, Ms Sarah McCarthy-Fry and Ms Christine Russal.

The MPs also visited the Cocoa Research Institute of Ghana (CRIG), New Tafo and the Blue Skies Company at Nsawam.

Osagyefo Amotia Ofori Panin said a number of Africans were experiencing a phenomenon of "poverty without option", a situation that must arouse the feelings of well-meaning politicians and embolden them to seek to end its occurrence.

He appealed to the MPs to act as advocates for developing nations and help seek increased transfer of technical knowledge from the United Kingdom to nations such as Ghana that are yet to overcome the challenges posed by a common world trade.

In return, he suggested, developed countries must also demand transformational leadership from the developing nations, especially with regard to a leadership that would be action-oriented and ensure quality life for their people.

Osagyefo Amotia Ofori Panin said there was no way children in developing nations should be made to feel that it was a curse to be born in the homestead while other nations revelled in abundance. He appealed to the delegation to assist Prime Minister Tony Blair, whom he described as his hero, in his effort to expand British co-operation with developing nations in sensitive sectors such as education and health.

The chief commended the effort of Mr Blair in seeking debt moratorium and eventually its cancellation for a number of developing nations and his institution of a Commission on Africa to help address problems on the continent.

Ms Sarah McCarthy-Fry commended the Okyenhene for the institution of the "Boabako na Boa Oman" Educational Foundation and expressed the need for knowledge on the eco-system to be transmitted to the children to preserve the rich bio-diversity of the area.