We'll Not Be Pressured to Sever Ties With Qatar - President

Ghana will not be dissuaded by anyone from pursuing a relationship with Qatar, President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has said.

Although a number of countries around the Gulf region and some parts of Africa have severed diplomatic ties with Qatar due to their alleged support for terrorists, President Akufo-Addo said Ghana, a sovereign country, would not be pressured to do same.

"We are determined to have a good relationship with Qatar, we value the relationship, and we will continue with it," President Akufo-Addo said when he met the Emir of Qatar yesterday on a day's official visit to Qatar.

President Akufo-Addo noted that the preoccupation of his government, since assuming office in January 2017, had been to build a strong economy which would give investors, domestic and foreign, the confidence to invest in Ghana, and, thereby, deliver improved standards of living for the Ghanaian people.

As a result, he said his government was embarking on an aggressive public private partnership programme to attract investment in the development of the country's infrastructure.

President Akufo-Addo was hopeful that with solid participation from the Qatar government and its private sector, Ghana could develop a modern railway network with strong production centre linkages that would connect the country to Burkina Faso, Cote d'Ivoire, and Togo.

The President also reiterated the presence of several other projects in the areas of roads, water, housing, transport, industry, manufacturing, agriculture, petroleum and gas, and the exploitation of Ghana's mineral wealth which were being structured to attract private sector financing.

He was, however, hopeful that the respective visits to Ghana and Qatar by himself and Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani would mark the beginning of a fruitful and productive relationship between the two countries, which would inure to the benefit of their people.

The Emir of Qatar, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, commended President Akufo-Addo for his strong leadership over the last 22 months.

According to Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, the fundamentals of the Ghanaian economy, coupled with the prevailing social indicators, points to a good example worth emulating by others on the continent.

"Indeed, you are governing Ghana well," the Emir of Qatar Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani applauded the efforts by the government to build a conducive investment and business climate in the country and was hopeful of forging a strong relationship with Ghana, adding that "there are lots of opportunities that we can do together."

Already, he indicated that the State of Qatar was establishing the Qatar Investment Authority, the state-owned holding company that specialises in domestic and foreign investment, to explore opportunities in the areas of energy, tourism, agriculture, security, education, and infrastructural development in Ghana.

With the state of insecurity in the Sahel, in West Africa, being of major concern to the world, the Emir stated that military assistance from Qatar, to help fight the scourge of terrorism in countries like Burkina Faso and Mali, was in the offing, and assured Ghana of Qatar's support in helping to equip Ghana's security apparatus to deal with the menace.

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