Ghana is pursuing strategic bilateral partnerships aimed at creating jobs, expanding industrial production and ensuring greater value is derived from the country’s natural resources, as the government seeks to translate its diplomatic engagements into tangible economic opportunities.

The partnerships being explored include cooperation on labour mobility, visa waivers, scholarships, trade and investment, infrastructure development and resource processing.

Particular attention is being given to the railway sector, with the government seeking financial and technical partners to support the expansion of the country’s rail infrastructure.

Ghana is also engaging countries with significant financial and technical capacity, including Qatar, Bahrain and Saudi Arabia, while further discussions are planned with Norway, Finland, the Netherlands and Germany.

The government is seeking support not only for infrastructure but also for the establishment of factories and industries capable of processing Ghana’s raw materials locally.

Foreign Affairs Minister Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa disclosed this when he spoke to journalists on the margins of the 81st United Nations General Assembly in New York.

He said more than 20 bilateral meetings had been scheduled with selected strategic countries, stressing that the objective was to secure concrete outcomes rather than symbolic diplomatic engagements.

“Beyond all of this multilateral effort, it’s the bilateral, country-specific projects that we want to deliver for the Ghanaian people,” he said.

He added that Ghana’s young population made job creation an urgent priority and that natural resources should no longer be exported cheaply in their raw form when they could be processed locally to generate employment and support industrial development.

“We want to create opportunities in Africa, in our country, in Ghana,” Mr Ablakwa said, adding that job creation, industrialisation, value addition and resource sovereignty were central to the government’s bilateral agenda.