In an effort to deepen trade and investment with Italy, a delegation from the World Trade Centre (WTC) Accra paid a working visit to the Italian Ambassador to Ghana, Giovanni Favilli at his Embassy in Accra.

The Managing Director of WTC Accra, Mr. Emmanuel Doni-Kwame recounted efforts undertaken by WTC Accra to deepen Ghana – Italy trade and investment in the past few years.

He indicated that, WTC Accra organized top Ghanaian businesses and government officials to participate in 2014 ECOMONDO in Italy and a Ghana Country Presentation organized with UNIDO ITPO and Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Italy.

To leverage the successes chalked, Mr. Doni-Kwame hinted that another business delegation would be organized to participate in this year’s ECOMONDO in November and a Ghana Country Presentation will be organized in 2018.

Mr. Doni-Kwame informed the Ambassador that the cordial relationship WTC Accra has built over the years continuous to benefit the national economy as it is currently organising the participation of officials from the Ghana Civil Aviation Authority and Africa World Airlines which is co-founded by its Executive Chairman, Togbe Afede XIV, to the “Padova Looking Ahead and Beyond 2017” study tour of the aerospace sector in Italy.

Mr. Doni-Kwame also mentioned that promoting the WTC concept on the African continent is of paramount importance to WTC Accra.

First among the reasons is the great strides African countries have made over the last few decades in terms of economic development and the need to help integrate African countries into the multilateral and plurilateral trading system.

He said the upcoming Continent Free Trade Agreement will inure to the benefit of Africans but achieving this will require that the necessary synergies are created to ensure that trade is facilitated.

“This is what WTC Accra seeks to achieve by helping to establish other WTCs in other African countries such as Kenya, Ethiopia, South Africa, Rwanda and Côte d'Ivoire,” he said.

He expressed his delight at the ongoing construction of a World Trade Centre in Nigeria, Africa’s biggest economy, and noted that this would further boost trade and integration on the continent.

Ambassador Favilli receiving the delegation indicated that the story of Africa over the last few decades has changed dramatically from a continent of little progress to one with numerous opportunities.

He said despite its challenges, Africa continues to rise to the admiration of many over the world. The story of Africa is now ‘Africa rising’, he observed.

There is the need for technology and information exchange in order to harness the opportunities in Africa. ‘It is for this reason that the Embassy sees the WTC Accra as a credible partner to work with in Ghana’ he said.

He said is a strong interest in Africa now than before and assured that Italy would work collaboratively with Ghana to grow each other’s economies.

He said facilitating trade and investment between the two countries is the main focus of the Italian Embassy in Ghana and therefore sees the need to build a strategic relationship with the World Trade Centre Accra. Besides trade and investment, the Ambassador said addressing irregular migration is also of utmost importance to Italy.