The Chinese Embassy in Ghana has inaugurated a Visa Application Centre in Accra as part of efforts to improve its services and the bilateral relations between the two countries.
Before the centre was established in collaboration with the China Tourism Group Corporation, such services were provided at a centre attached to the main Chinese Embassy at Cantonments.
The new centre, located at Airport City, is expected to provide seamless, convenient, and high-quality visa services to Ghanaians for business and trade, education and tourism purposes.
At the ceremony held last Thursday, the Chinese Ambassador to Ghana, Lu Kun said a new centre became necessary, following a sharp increase in visa applicants to China, particularly for trade and business purposes after China adjusted and optimised COVID-19 policies at the beginning of this year.
Based on the expectation the numbers would shore up in the coming months, he expressed the hope that the opening of the centre would open a new chapter in the people-to-people exchanges between the two countries.
Touching on bilateral ties, he said it continued to deepen in recent years, under the leadership and the joint efforts of China’s President Xi Jinping and Ghana’s President Nana Akufo-Addo.
Politically, Mr Lu said the two countries had maintained mutual trust and close cooperation in various fields at large likewise economically, where the economic and trade exchange between China and Ghana was flourishing.
“China is Ghana’s biggest trading partner and foreign investment source. In 2022, our bilateral trade volume was about 10.27 billion US dollars, a big increase compared to the previous year. Pragmatic cooperation and frequent exchanges between the two countries constitute a solid foundation of China-Ghana relations,” he said.
Mr Lu expressed the Chinese Embassy’s commitment to working together with the management of the centre to provide better services to all applicants and to ensure a better China-Ghana relation.
On behalf of Ghana, the Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration, Mavis Nkansah Boadu, said the centre was a reflection of the strong ties between the two countries in various fields including trade, investment, infrastructural development, culture and education.
She said it would augment tourism, business ventures, academic collaborations, and cultural exchange between the two countries, for mutual benefits.
Mrs Boadu said Ghana would be rolling out a new visa application system with enhanced security features, including machine readable visa hardware system to enhance travels into the country.
BY JONATHAN DONKOR
