Accra, Dec. 16, GNA - Ghana and Cuba will continue to identify and develop areas of meaningful and productive cooperation that would strengthen trade, economic, agricultural, scientific and technical cooperation to their natural benefit, Mr Chris Kpodo, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, said on Wednesday in Accra.

He said their permanent joint commission for cooperation established since 1982 provided an effective framework for the conduct of the overall cooperation between them.

Mr Kpodo said this at a photo exhibition to mark the 50th anniversary of Ghana-Cuba relations. It was organized by the Cuban Institute for Friendship with Peoples.

He expressed gratitude to Cuba for her assistance to Ghana especially in the area of education and health.

Mr Kpodo said Ghana had benefited immensely from scholarships granted to Ghanaian students by Cuba, including the establishment of Ghana's own school on the Isle of Youth, a facility that produced almost 1,000 professionally trained personnel that provide valuable service to various sectors of the nation's national development activity. Prof. Kofi Awoonor, Chairman of the Council of State, said Ghanaians, and for that matter Africans, did not appreciate the significant contribution other countries were making for their country because they were not recognized especially in the newspapers.

He said whereas Ghanaian doctors did not want to work in the villages, that is where Cuban doctors were found, adding that Cubans were part of the social development of Africa. Dr Miguel Perez Cruz, Ambassador of Cuba in Ghana, said diplomatic cooperation between the two countries was warm. Mrs Alicia Corredera, Vice President of the Institute, laid wreaths on the tombs of the late President Kwame Nkrumah and his wife, Fathia. 16 Dec. 09