Luanda - The President of the Republic, Joao Lourenço, arrived mid-afternoon this Sunday in Accra, for a two-day state visit at the invitation of his Ghanaian counterpart, Nana Akufo Addo.
Coming from Guinea, the Angolan Head of State was received at Kotoka international airport by the Minister of Defence, Dominic Nitwul of the West Africa nation.
The Angolan Head of State, who is accompanied by a high-level delegation, has an official agenda starting Monday, which includes, among other activities, a private meeting with President Nana Akufo Addo, with whom he will address issues related to bilateral cooperation.
Angola and Ghana, who share a common history in the struggle for national independence, signed the first legal and cooperation instruments in 1976.
To strengthen exchanges and strategic partnerships, the two governments signed in 2019 in Angola, on the occasion of the visit of the President of Ghana, a memorandum in the field of Education, aimed at the mobility of teachers and researchers from higher education institutions and scientific research centres.
They also signed an agreement on the operation of the Bilateral Cooperation Commission, created under Article 7 of the General Agreement on Economic, Scientific, Technical and Cultural Cooperation, with the aim of establishing a framework to enable its implementation.
The two countries also initialled an agreement to abolish visas on diplomatic and service passports, which aims to facilitate migratory mobility.
The idea of the authorities is to strengthen the exchange of information and exchange of experiences, to which is added the plan to strengthen the promotion of mobility for teachers and researchers.
In the current global political and economic scenario, marked by the strong retraction of economies due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the two States are looking forward to a closer collaboration in the areas of energy, oil and hydrocarbons.
It is expected that, during the visit, they will focus their approach on agricultural research for agro-processing and agribusiness and the exchange of technical knowledge and information on good agricultural practices.
Market access, trade facilitation, industrial processing, trade information exchange and participation in various fairs and exhibitions are also expected to be discussed.
Ghana, one of the most diversified economies in Africa, exports at least 78 products, with India, China, Switzerland, South Africa and the Netherlands as its main destinations.
With this potential, it becomes a potential partner to support Angola in the process of diversifying the economy, increasing exports and reducing imports, some of the challenges of the Government of Angola coming out of the 2017 general elections.
