Germany Cancels More Debts

The German government has cancelled an additional ?2.18 trillion (275 million Euro) of Ghana?s bilateral debt owed her.This is besides what the Paris Club, which Germany is a member, jointly cancelled in June this year as a result of Ghana reaching the completion point of the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) initiative.

The German Ambassador to Ghana, Mr Peter Linder, who announced this in Accra, said, ?The Government of Germany has decided to honour this achievement by increasing the cancellation of commercial loans from 90 per cent to 100 per cent.?

He was launching a booklet on German-Ghana Development Co-operation titled Co-operation in Changing Times: Ghanaian German Development Co-operation. The booklet gives an overview of the relations between the two countries regarding development co-operation.

It touches on focal areas such as bilateral development projects, as well as regional peace and stability. Mr Linder explained that all the necessary documentation for the cancellation had been completed and preliminary signatures had been appended.

According to the Ambassador, the German government would also cancel the demands from post cut-off date loan agreements of financial co-operation until the cut-off date to 100 per cent.He announced that a process of ratification had begun in both countries on a bilateral agreement on avoiding double taxation.

Mr Linder further stated that Ghana was among three priority partners of Germany and as such projects were being looked at in three priority areas, namely, food security and agriculture, employment-oriented private sector development, and good governance and decentralisation.

?These areas are geared towards the priorities contained in the Ghana Poverty Reduction Strategy (GPRS) and are also key elements of Germany?s Action Plan for 2015,? he said.

A Deputy Minister of Finance and Economic Planning, Dr Anthony Akoto Osei, conveyed the country?s appreciation to the German government for its intervention in the GPRS. He said although trade relations between the two countries had been steady over the years, there was room for improvement for their mutual benefit.