Accra, March 18, GNA - Mr Joseph Yieleh Chireh, Minister of Local Government and Rural Development, on Wednesday called for a stronger economic and cultural bond between Ghana and Senegal to ensure maximum development benefits.

"We in the ECOWAS region need to do much more than we are doing in terms of trade and other areas," he said when the Senegalese Ambassador of Ghana, Mr Balla Mandaw Dia, called on him in Accra. The visit was to announce the re-opening of the Embassy in Ghana after a two-year closure and also work towards strengthening bilateral relations between the two countries.

Mr Chireh said Ghana played a key role in African affairs and therefore needed to strengthen ties with other countries to develop good socio-political structures as a growing and developing continent. Mr Dia lauded Ghana's achievement in the area of good governance and democratic development saying "Ghana has reached a high level of democracy".

He said intensifying relationship at all levels of governance was imperative in solving African's problem. "Let Africa come together to solve its problems," Mr Dia said. He noted that Senegal was drawing lessons from Ghana's decentralization programme to solve similar governance issues, adding that "rural development is a major problem where we need to exchange ideas". 18 March 09