Sekondi, July 5, GNA - Mr. Phillip Nkrumah Shama Ahanta East Metropolitan Chief Executive said on Wednesday that the sharing of knowledge, skills and culture is at the bedrock of development of relations.

He was speaking at an open forum organised by the Assembly to honour the 16-member delegation from Boston and Oakland in the United States of America as part of the US-Africa Sister Cities conference. This forum is to bring, "those relations home and take them a step further from the city authority level to the community level, he added.

Mr Nkrumah hinted that through the Boston and Oakland sister cities programme the assembly had received tow ambulances, hospital beds, computers and assorted educational materials.

He urged the sister cities to take advantage of the immense opportunities that globalisation offers to improve on their relations and to enable it to grow bigger and become more beneficial. Mr Nkrumah disclosed that a satellite dish would soon be installed to link selected schools in the metropolis with Oakland to facilitate culture integration.

Oakland had also supported the assembly with 20,000 dollars for HIV/AIDS sensitisation programmes in the metropolis. He expressed regret that though the metropolis abound in several tourism potentials and other natural resources, the inability to harness this is a major problem for the metropolis. Dr Renne Dankarlin-Gail, leader of the Boston and Oakland delegation stressed their appreciation to the assembly for the honour and pledged to ensure that rapid development takes place within the metropolis.

In a related development the group presented 20 hospital beds to the Kwesimintim Hospital and later launched a website and brochure on the assembly.

Presenting the items, Mr Mike Ofori, a Ghanaian resident in Boston and President of the Sekondi/Takoradi Boston Sister City Association said the donation formed part of "building linkages and improving on health care delivery."

Dr Tawiah Fiame, Senior Medical Officer of the Hospital expressed appreciation to the delegation for the donation and said the hospital caters for over 100 patients daily, thus the beds would reduce the pressure on the few ones in the hospital.

The website for the assembly is www.sekonditakoradi.piz.