Ghana to begin visa waiver negotiations with Slovakia – Ablakwa

Ghana and Slovakia have agreed to start negotiations for a Visa Waiver Agreement, with goals to enhance collaboration in automotive manufacturing, banking, and pharmaceuticals. Foreign Affairs Minister Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa announced this on X after learning of the open letters from four new non-resident ambassadors to Ghana. The ambassadors are Sweden’s Anna Westerholm, Slovakia’s Martin Podstavek, Finland’s Sanna Selin, and Thailand’s Thirapath Mongkolnavin.

Slovakia plans to host a Ghana-Slovakia business forum in the next two weeks to explore investment opportunities in the automotive, banking, and pharmaceutical sectors. The two nations are also discussing a potential partnership for bus delivery and a vehicle assembly plant in Ghana. Regarding their relations, Ablakwa stated that Ghana and Sweden share deep ties originating from the 17th century, and Sweden intends to collaborate with Ghana on initiatives aligned with President Mahama’s New Economy plan, such as railway development, artificial intelligence investments, agribusiness, digital revenue administration, and defense cooperation.

Ablakwa emphasized that Ghana and Finland will continue strengthening their strong ties, planning to expand cooperation in education, Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET), fintech incubation, maritime security, and counterterrorism collaboration. He also revealed that Ghana and Thailand will jointly support Ghana's application for BRICS partnership, considering Thailand's status as an official BRICS member.

Additionally, Ghana and Thailand intend to cooperate on Ghana's BRICS bid, leveraging Thailand's existing partnership status. The collaboration will focus on political consultations, rice production expertise exchange, labor mobility partnerships, and fisheries cooperation to boost Ghanaian canned fish production.