26 April 2004
The Prime Minister and President Kufuor earlier released a joint press release following talks at Downing Street. [Read the press release]
Read the transcript of the press conference below
Prime Minister:
Good afternoon everyone. First of all can I say how delighted I am to see President Kufuor of Ghana here in Downing Street, and I would like to begin by paying tribute to the immensely courageous and able leadership that he has shown in respect of Ghana in these past few years. As I saw myself when I was out in Ghana, there is a tremendous willingness and spirit to have the country move forward, but there are difficult and tough decisions that have to be taken. The relations between Ghana and the United Kingdom are very, very strong, very good and obviously we want to keep them that way. Amongst the issues we have discussed are first of all how we can improve and give some support, both the British government and also with the World Bank, to primary school education in Ghana, which is obviously an important issue since there is an expansion of that going on, but we want to see how we can help it go even further; and secondly obviously some of the regional issues. Again I pay tribute to Ghana’s participation in and help in ECOWAS, which is extremely important. There are few issues more important than making sure that at the same time as reform and change is happening, there is the stability and the handling of potential regional conflict that can allow that basic material progress to take place, so we have had a discussion about these things too. We have discussed NEPAD and obviously the Africa Commission that I have established. There will be a Ghanaian representative on it and I hope very much that we can make sure that over this coming period of time the two governments can work closely together in order to sustain the progress that has been made in Ghana. And in addition I offered once again our strong support in making sure that we get a deal at the WTO that allows countries like Ghana to progress in the way they can do economically if they are given the chance. So welcome, John, it is a great pleasure to see you here, and please say a few words.
President Kufuor:
Thank you Mr Prime Minister. I am very delighted to be here. The Prime Minister has proved to be a friend in need for Africa and his idea of setting up the Africa Commission is truly welcome. I believe with this Commission, which is very African in many ways.,When he assumes office as President of the G8 and also of the European Union next year, he definitely would put Africa on the agenda firmly at these very important Councils where Africa’s offer of friendship and partnership to the rest of the world would be considered seriously to the mutual benefit of Africa and its partners. So I wholly support the Commission. Then on Ghana, the constitution of Ghana enjoins government to pursue a policy of free and compulsory education for all children. As I speak now, I believe the percentage of intake of children at primary level is something like 70%. Of course government is trying to get all the resources possible to try to achieve the target of 100% intake. Definitely we need resources. I have just happily learnt that the British government, in partnership with the World Bank, is trying to raise £50 million to support the Ghana government in pursuit of this very worthy policy to equalise opportunity for all children, and our objective is that by the year 2015 Ghana would attain 100% intake of all children at that level of education, and that is very happy news for me and I appreciate the concern shown by the Prime Minister and his Government here.
Then if you talk about the regional issues, ECOWAS has tried and shown leadership in trying to bring peace in the sub-region, but again, with the constraint of resources, ECOWAS has had to depend on partners, genuine partners, like Britain, France and the United Nations. I am happy to say that last week the Security Council’s decision to deploy peace-keeping forces in the Côte d’Ivoire, our immediate neighbour, is showing results and the forces are being deployed. With that we believe that the situation in Côte d’Ivoire would be brought under control, to open up the country, secure it and allow the parties to begin to function so that hopefully a country may work to realise the targets set for the end of next year of allowing the people of Côte d’Ivoire to decide through the ballot box who the government should be. Liberia is doing well and I believe all the factions, including those which used to be called rebels are now disarming and co-operating with the transitional government, and Sierra Leone too is stabilising, even though it still needs a bit more help to begin to do the infrastructure, services, and to also give employment to people who used to be in the bushes fighting, so they will be re-established into normal society. So all in all we are very happy to be here and to show appreciation for the partnership we enjoy, Ghana enjoys with Britain.
Question:
Mr Prime Minister, the UK is believed to be Ghana’s major development partner, but unfortunately any assistance to Ghana either comes in through material or in piecemeal, can you react to enable the country to address its development issues effectively?
Prime Minister:
I suppose you are always going to be in the situation, we are always going to be in the situation where it is never as much as we would like, but I would just point out we are trebling aid and development assistance to Africa as a whole. It will reach, I think sometime next year or the year after, £1 billion a year, and the package today that we are announcing in respect of primary school education is a substantial package. Now let me assure you I would always like it to be more, but there are priorities and demands on budgets the entire time, with us as with you. But I think the demonstration of our commitment to Ghana lies in the fact that over the past few years we have stepped up significantly the help that we give, and we will continue to do so, and we will do it in part because we believe the government of Ghana is trying to do the right things for the Ghanaian people.
Question:
You talked about education, but there has been a constant effort to lure our nurses and doctors over to you, especially the United Kingdom. The Ghana government does not really benefit, after spending so much money educating its nurses and doctors. What do you think you can do to help stem the situation?
Prime Minister:
We have agreed a protocol now here which means that we make sure that if we are at all hiring staff to come in for example to our Health Service, we are doing so in a way that takes surplus staff and does not deplete the services of those countries. Now that is a thing that we have done precisely because we have recognised there is a problem in this area, and it is also why for example in many of the aspects to do with healthcare, which is one of the main areas where we need skilled workers, we are looking insofar as we can to surplus capacity in the European Union first.
Question:
On 1 May all of these Eastern European countries are going to join in, we are beginning to wonder what the implication would be in terms of trade for Africa, because already I was reading one of the Christian Aid reports saying that Ghana’s tomato production is being squeezed because of EU subsidies.
Prime Minister:
The whole question of EU subsidies and the Common Agricultural Policy is one where we are at the forefront of the campaign to reform the European Union, to take down substantially the amount of the European budget that is spent on subsidising agricultural production and to make sure that we have a position as the European Union in the WTO talks that allows the developing countries, such as Ghana, better access to our markets. So I don’t doubt there will be an impact from EU accession, and it is important we do enlarge the European Union, but in the end we need a comprehensive global agreement on the WTO rules that means that we start reducing the impact of the tariffs we set in the European Union, and we will do that.
Question:
But did Africa come into your consideration in terms of how the enlargement will impact on your relationship with Africa?
Prime Minister:
It is not simply a question of the EU accession, because even if the EU accession wasn’t taking place, the real problem is you have got a system of agricultural production still in Europe, which subsidises over-production and protects the goods being produced in the European Union against proper competition. Now what we have actually done, and as I say Britain has been at the forefront of this, is to ensure that we get a position in the WTO talks that means we are reducing those subsidies for production, and we have got to carry on with that, and if we don’t do that then we will find, not just in respect of EU accession, I think that is obviously another factor, but overall the Common Agriculture policy in Europe needs drastic and radical change, and we as I say have been leading the way for that. I would just point out too that we are saying that over the next few years, partly as a result of the changes we have introduced, there will be quite a radical reduction in the overall percentage of the European Union budget that will be going to the CAP.
Question:
Mr President, what about yourself? I think I have to ask you this question very quickly. When are you going to get rid of the curfew you have in the north of Ghana that is creating a lot of anxiety in the opposition ranks?
President Kufuor:
The curfew has been lifted in a large part of the north.
Question:
Inaudible.
President Kufuor:
The state of emergency and curfew I believe has been lifted in large areas of the north. Only two towns remain under curfew - Tomale and Yendi - and there because of the recurrence of violence any time. But I believe the whole case is gradually moving into normalcy and hopefully in the next month or two we would achieve normalcy there.
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