Ghana: Opening statement

Your Excellency,
Honorable minister

Thank you very much, Your Excellency, for this warm welcome. Mr Vice President, this is is a very important day for us. The Crown Princess and I have been very much looking forward to visiting Ghana for the first time. We are accompanied by our Minister of Environment and Development, Mr Erik Solheim.

Ghana is an African country that has shown that it is possible to build a stable and prosperous country based on well functioning democratic institutions and good governance.

Norway wants to contribute to continued positive development in Ghana by enhancing our cooperation both in the field of petroleum management, peace building and on environmental issues.

Norway assists Ghana in developing a sustainable management of the country’s oil and gas resources and in this way to contribute to Ghana’s success as an African petroleum nation through good governance. The objective is to make oil and gas a blessing for the country, and not a curse.

We look forward - over these next few days - to get better aquainted with areas where we already have strong bilateral relations - like petrolium, but also our common committment to the UN and peace keeping operations. Hopefully we will also identify areas that could be explored even further.

Thank you.