Economic Office Of Spain Embassy Inaugurated

Economic Office of the Embassy of Spain in Ghana has officially been inaugurated in Accra yesterday by Hon. Dr. Kwabena Duffuor, Minister for Finance and Economic Planning, and Her Excellency Julia Olmo, Ambassador of Spain to Ghana.

The inauguration of the Economic and Commercial Office would help speed up the processes involved in the implementation of the financial protocols already in place and those that will come in the future.

Speaking at the inauguration, Hon. Minister said that the Spanish Government assistance to Ghana has been in the form of concessionary facilities which are guided by the Development Aid Fund (FAD) and managed by the Spanish ministry of industry, trade and tourism.

He further stated that the assistance from the Spanish government focuses primarily on poverty reduction, which is the ultimate objective of the development agenda of the government of Ghana.

The Hon. Minister indicated that Ghana signed its first Financial Protocol with the Spanish government in 1998.

Prior to this period, he said, Spanish financial assistance to Ghana has consist of funding ‘’a shoplist’’ of projects without any formal framework agreement.

Hon Duffuor disclosed that early this year, the Spanish government converted € 8.0 million allocated to the Ghana Police Service and € 5.0 million allocated to the Ministry of Energy into a grant.

Miss Olmo stated that Spain and Ghana have succeeded over the last years in developing close ties in every field, and more specifically in the economic and commercial spheres.

She said over the last nine years Spain and Ghana have signed two financial protocols through which the Spanish government offered concessionary funds to finance projects of mutual interest in Ghana.

The first protocol, she said, included soft loans for a total amount of $ 40 million, which were successfully utilised in the education and health sectors.

Source: ISD (Antoinette Mintah)