A City of Amsterdam trade mission headed by Mark van der Horst, Alderman for Port Affairs, is to depart for Ghana on Saturday, 8 March.

The mission's programme includes visits to a number of shipping terminals, the opening of new company and a return visit to King Otumfo Osei Tutu II of the Ashanti. Mr Van der Horst will also meet the President of Ghana and several of his ministers. Time has been allocated for a presentation about the Port of Amsterdam and port businesses will have the opportunity to intensify and extend their network of contacts.

Apart from the Amsterdam Port Authority (GHA), the principal participants in the trade mission are about ten port-related companies, the Amsterdam Chamber of Commerce and the Register Amsterdam. The latter, the body which runs the population register in the city, will be investigating opportunities for co-operation in the fields of register management, registration and verifications. There is also Ghanaian interest in bringing the current exhibition about the Ashanti people at Amsterdam's Royal Tropical Institute and Museum to the country.

The main purpose of the trade mission is to reinforce existing economic and administrative contacts, and to establish new ones, so as to forge a good relationship between Amsterdam and Ghana on social and port-related matters.

King Otumfo Osei Tutu II of the Ashanti paid a visit to Amsterdam in late June 2002, and in October last year Mr Van der Horst went to Ghana to pave the way for the forthcoming trade mission. It is particularly important for Amsterdam as a traditional cocoa-processing region and the world's largest cocoa port to maintain stable relations with Ghana, one of the most important cocoa-producing nations on the west coast of Africa.

The trade mission will return from Ghana on 14 March.