The President, Prime Minister and Foreign Minister of Malta have granted an audience to Ghana’s top diplomat and candidate for Commonwealth Secretary-General, Ms Shirley Botchwey, in the capital, Valetta, and expressed satisfaction with their relations with Ghana.
Ghana hosts the Mediterranean archipelago’s only diplomatic mission in sub-Sahara Africa, which opened in January 2023.
“Ghana is an important partner for us,” Foreign Minister Ian Borg told his Ghanaian counterpart. “We have 24 companies who are doing business in Ghana. They have no complaints; they’re happy.”
Last year, Mr. Borg led a delegation of 45, most of them investors, when opening the High Commission of Malta in Accra.
Ghana’s High Commission in Malta, established in 2014, is also the only fully-fledged sub-Saharan diplomatic mission in Valetta.
In her meetings with Mr. Borg as well as Prime Minister Robert Abela and current President Myriam Spiteri Debono, Ms. Botchwey stressed the importance of trade and investment as against aid.
“Trade and investments are very critical for creating jobs for our young people to help stem the tide of illegal migration,” she said.
“We need desperately to create opportunities for young people. We don’t want them to leave Africa; we need strong advocacy for the interests of young people – in Africa, the Caribbean and the Pacific” said Ms. Botchwey, who served multiple terms as a legislator for the most populous constituency in Ghana.
Trade and investment, and skills training and start-ups for the youth across the Commonwealth are among Ms. Botchwey’s priorities for the 56-member Commonwealth which has a population of 2.6 billion, nearly two-thirds of whom are below 30 years.
She said the Commonwealth “could punch above its weight,” citing the World Health Organization’s (WHO) Health Worker Protocol, and the Highly-Indebted Poor-Country Initiative (HIPC) which gave relief to debt-stressed countries, as examples of what the Commonwealth was capable of.
Prime Minister Abela agreed, saying, “We should discuss Ghana and Africa in terms of trade and not aid.
“Unfortunately, Africa is often discussed in terms of migration. I think we should see Africa in terms of mutual opportunities; the potential is there,” said Mr. Abela whose Commonwealth nation of 530,000 people joined the European Union (EU) twenty years ago.
Through May of this year alone, over 800 migrants are reported to have died attempting to cross the Mediterranean; last year an estimated 3,100 reportedly lost their lives.
Ms. Botchwey also paid a courtesy call on President Debono.
She also discussed the threat posed by climate change to small island states such as Malta and others in the Pacific, and in the Caribbean where Hurricane Beryl has left havoc in its trail just weeks ago.
“The Commonwealth can rally its members towards raising critical financing to help build resilience among these vulnerable states,” Ms. Botchwey said.
She cited the Pacific island nation of Kiribati whose highest point is a mere four metres above sea level, as an example of a Commonwealth country facing what she called an “existential threat.” She said the collective voice of “our commonwealth” must be engineered to make a difference.
Ghana and Malta have exchanged state visits in recent years, with President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo being received in Malta in 2019, and Ghana hosting President George William Vella in March this year,one month before retiring and handing over to President Debono, 71, for a five-year non-renewable term
