Dr. Hafiz Bin Salih, the Upper West Regional Minister, has encouraged the government of the Federal Republic of Switzerland to consider investing in the economic potential of the region.

He said the region was endowed with economic potential in the areas of agriculture, especially maize cultivation and groundnut processing and tourism, which the Swiss government could invest in.

Dr. Salih said this in Wa when the Switzerland Ambassador to Ghana, Togo and Benin, Madam Simone Giger, called on him to begin a working visit to the region.

‘There are so many areas that we can collaborate and cooperate so that it can benefit the two countries, in agriculture, education, health and human resources development.

These are areas that we can look at critically so that we see where we can tie our nuts so that the two countries can benefit,’ Dr. Salih explained.

He said the visit of the Ambassador to the region would strengthen the bilateral relations between Ghana and Switzerland as she would appreciate the key chal
lenges and potentials of the country.

‘I am happy that you have gone beyond Accra because most people try to restrict themselves to the environs of Accra but in your case, you decided to go beyond that and I want to commend you highly for taking that initiative,’ he stated.

Dr. Salih explained that the Upper West Region remained peaceful despite its proximity to Burkina Faso where there were some security infractions resulting from violent extremist activities in that country.

The Regional Minister attributed that to the pragmatic measures put in place by the Government to maintain the security of the region and the country.

The visit of the Ambassador was to, among other things, acquaint herself with the region and to visit some local government project sites in the region.

Madam Giger said the government of Switzerland was one of the main sponsors of the decentralised budget of the government by providing funding to the performance-based element of the decentralised budget.

The Ambassador said she had
been in the country for about 15 months now and decided to visit all the 16 regions in the country to see some of the projects funded by the decentralised budget with the Upper West Region being the 12th to be visited.

As part of her visit, Madam Giger was expected to hold a meeting with the Wa Municipal Assembly as well as pay a courtsey visit to Wa Naa, Naa Fuseini Seidu Pelpuo IV.

Source: Ghana News Agency