The Vice President, Mr. K.B. Amissah-Arthur, says Africa’s place and relevance in the global Economy cannot be downplayed.

He made the point at a lecture on “Global Trade Development and its impact on India-Africa relations” at Lovely Professional University in Punjab, India.

Mr Amissah-Arthur observed that unjust global trade practices were negatively affecting the economies of many developing countries.

“These distortions put stress and strain on the economies of developing economies, resulting in high unemployment”, he said.

To address this problem, the Vice President said strong cooperation and collaboration between Asia, particularly India and Africa is relevant. He said “we share many common values and principles, and I believe that we have a better understanding of ourselves as a result of our common history and long-standing relations”.

Mr Amissah-Arthur called for diversification and integration of African economies into the global economy, pointing out that “the continent cannot remain a producer of primary products”, particularly as it is projected that in the next three decades 41% of the world’s youth would be Africans.

The Vice President said “Africa is the continent to watch in the next few decades and Indian businesses must locate in Africa, if they want to continue being successful”.

He touted the country’s enviable record of political and social stability in the West African sub-region, whilst emphasizing “Ghana is a great location for reaching out to the 300 million people in the ECOWAS sub-region”.