The King of the Asante Kingdom, Otumfuo Osei Tutu II has sought the partnership with Czech Republic in making the numerous products the country’s universities are annually churning out useful to Ghana.
Instead of exporting them to spur development in western countries, His Majesty said they are needed by their homeland.
He finds this as the only solution to brain drain and believes it can happen only when jobs are created for them to work.
As such, he called on the Ambassador of Czech Republic to Ghana, H.E Pivel Balek to reinforce and enhance collaborations between the two countries.
The partnership, he noted, must transcend policy and signing of documents to solving practical economic issues such as establishing industries to create unemployment.
“We have the human resource here. The University {KNUST}here for example is producing so many students in sciences and agriculture that we can use. We have very intelligent students graduating from the University. What we need is to put them into good use. We don’t want to export them. We want to use them here and so we can count on our friends like you who can partner is to be able to put things together.”
Collaborative Avenues
His Majesty also called for the exploration of viable avenues to expand collaboration between the two countries.
“Ghana is a developing country and we are seeking areas we can expand our economy, create employment and agriculture, health delivery, education, water, environment and a clean ecosystem. Even looking at areas of mining. We have so many problems with mining.
“The devastation it is creating. We need water treatment because I am afraid in the future, that is, between the next five and ten years, we might experience problems with the environment. These are areas that we need to look ahead for partnership.”
His Majesty touched on reclamation of lands and treatment of water bodies destroyed by illegal mining for agricultural purposes.
“We need to turn those lands into agricultural and viable lands. If we can do that, we have to reclaim that land and make sure the rivers and water bodies are also clean. We can look at it as a project and then we look at all the areas that have been destroyed by galamsey… and then reclaim and turn it into arable land for agriculture. That’s one area that we have to look at.”
Otumfuo also suggested industries in the processing of produce from the agricultural project into finished goods for export to transition Ghana from an import-driven economy to export-driven economy.
“And the partnership in terms of industry, adding value to agricultural products. If we produce tomatoes for example and it goes to waste, because we cannot process to add value, it means when the farmers finish, they lose and the interest in going into farming does not exist…You bring the tractors and we do the farm and then we add value to the produce and export.”
In the healthcare delivery, His Majesty alluded to a Cardiothoracic Centre which is lacking in the Ashanti Region.
“I don’t have a Cardiothoracic Centre here so if we are talking about healthcare delivery, this is one of them.”
Technical Team
To make the discussion effective, Otumfuo suggested a technical team made up of officials of the Embassy and his Office to fashion out areas for the collaboration.
“Before you leave, lets form a technical team to identify areas to work on… It’s not the joy of seeing people from Czech that makes me happy. There is the joy of seeing beautiful people from Czech but what do we get from it?”
Courtesy Call
The Ambassador together with his wife, Mrs Bilek, and other influential people from his home country visited the Manhyia Palace on August 19, 2024.
The envoy used the occasion to lay out plans to collaborate with officials of Czech branch of Plant for Planet and the Ghana branch of Plant for Planet to fight deforestation in the country.
Among his delegation were Michal Horacek the President of Czech branch of Plant for Planet and also an anthropologist, Leos Mares, a prominent Czech TV Presenter and member of Plant for Planet, Simon Michalvik, a member of Plant for Planet and Tamara Cibulkova, a member.
Source: Manhyia Palace
