2024-02-21 03:54:43
Ghana’s Minister of Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration, Shirley Ayorkar Botchwe, Bangladesh’s Foreign Minister, visited Dhaka. Had a meeting with Hasan Mahmud. In the meeting of the two foreign ministers, both sides gave importance to three issues. They discussed commodity exports, contract farming and Commonwealth issues.
After the Hasan-Shirley meeting, AFM Zahid Ul Islam, Director General of Africa Division and Ministry Spokesperson Sehli Sabreen briefed journalists at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Tuesday (February 20).
Director General Zahid Ul Islam said that three issues were discussed. We discussed what products we can export to Ghana. Among them were exports of pharmaceuticals, jute and jute products. There was a detailed discussion on whether Ghana is suitable for contract farming and whether we can come to an agreement on this or not.
Zahid Ul Islam said, Ghana is a Commonwealth country. Next October there is a conference of Secretary Heads of Leaders in Samoa. The Commonwealth Secretary will be elected at that conference, it was discussed. Basically, we have extensively discussed these three issues.
The Director General said that Ghana’s Foreign Minister Shirley will pay a courtesy call on Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina this evening.
In response to a question about contract farming in Africa, the Director General for Africa said that it started on a small scale in 2016. It has not yet seen the light of day in that sense. But we had discussions with Ghana and had a sideline meeting with the foreign minister in Kampala. Uganda has agreed to lease 20,000 hectares of land to us. We had a meeting with FBCCI. In Uganda we will have a visit with government and private representatives.
Zahid ul Islam said about the secretary candidate in the Commonwealth, March 31 is the deadline. Tanzania withdrew the application. So far there are three countries. Gambia, Ghana and Lesotho.
At that time, the spokesperson Sehli Sabreen said that the discussion between the two ministers was about the export of pharmaceuticals, jute and jute products, ceramics and leather products from Bangladesh. Our minister said, if agricultural land is leased from Ghana, in which case people of our country go there and cultivate, it will create a win win situation for both countries in terms of food security.
Ghana’s foreign minister arrived in Dhaka on Monday on a three-day visit. On the first day of the tour, he visited Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman Memorial Museum at 32 Dhanmondi and paid tribute to his portrait.