Ghanaians on Wednesday, October 2, 2019 joined the Korean Embassy in Accra to celebrate the Korean National Day.
The ceremony was attended by ministers of state, Members of Parliament, religious leaders, businesses and members of the Diplomatic Corps.
The Korean Ambassador to Ghana, Mr Kim Sungsoo said the two countries had produced outstanding world leaders including former United Nations Secretary Generals, Mr Ban Ki-moon and the late Mr Kofi Annan who had contributed to world peace and security.
He said Ghana was a very important development partner of the Republic of Korea.
Mr Sungsoo told the guests that Korea and Ghana had built strong relations over the years, with visits to Ghana by two Korean Foreign Ministers, Mrs Kang Kyung-wha, the current Minister of Foreign Affairs in July this year and Mr Ban Ki-moon, former Secretary General of United Nations, then Korea’s Minister of Foreign Affairs.
A further step towards deepening the economic cooperation between Ghana and Korea, he noted, was the collaboration between the Korea Customs Service and the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) to enhance port operations.
The collaboration, Mr Sungsoo said, was aimed at promoting digitisation and modernisation of the Customs Division of GRA through knowledge sharing and technology on the use of Korea’s UNIPASS Trade Facilitation and Customs Management Systems in promoting paperless system at the ports.
The Korean envoy said his country continues to provide technical and financial support towards the development of Ghana’s energy, education, health and agriculture as well as building the capacity of civil servants under the Korean International Cooperation Agency (KOICA).
He announced plans by the Korean government to provide $400 million loan to Ghana through the Korea Exim Bank from 2020-2022, doubling the amount of concessional loans to Ghana over the past 28 years.
Mr Sungsoo mentioned the Rice Value Chain improvement project in the Central Region, ongoing capacity building of Farmer-Based Organisations in the northern parts of Ghana, construction of the University of Environment, Energy and Sustainable Development at Bunso in the Eastern Region among others, as some projects being supported by the Korean government in Ghana.
The Korean Ambassador said he was optimistic that the Ghanaian economy would attain the status of a developed country just as Korea progressed from a donor recipient country to becoming the 11th largest economy in the world.
On development at the Korean Peninsula, Mr Sungsoo stated that South Korea was committed to ensuring the complete denuclearisation of the Peninsula.
Mr Kojo Oppong Nkrumah, the Minister of Information, said Ghana and Korea had nurtured and deepened the frontiers of their bilateral relations since the establishment of diplomatic relations four decades ago.
He thanked the Korean government for its immense contribution to the development of Ghana’s human resource.
The minister proposed a toast to the Korean Ambassador and urged the deepening of strong ties between the two countries for the mutual benefit of their people.
BY MALIK SULLEMANA
