Accra, Jan. 31, - Nana Agyekum
Dwamena, the Head of Civil Service, said the Service is exploring various areas
of co-operation to build the capacity and skills of civil servants to spur the
development of the country.
To that end, he said, it was
looking for technical and financial support for the creation of a proposed
Civil Service College as a strategic institution for developing the
professional cadre of civil servants to achieve that objective.
“We want to use the proposed
college to train the next generation of African policy-makers with the capacity
for undertaking research, consulting and innovation in the Civil Service,” he
said.
Nana Dwamena made this known when
Mr Csaba Balogh, the Hungarian State Secretary for Foreign Affairs and Trade,
led a delegation to pay a courtesy call on him, in Accra, on Wednesday.
The visit is intended to enhance
the bilateral relations between Ghana and Hungary and co-operate in areas that
would be mutually beneficial.
The Head of the Civil Service
commended the Hungarian Government for re-opening its Embassy in Ghana after
almost 30 years of closure and expressed optimism that the move would further
enhance the long-standing relation between the two countries.
Nana Dwamena acknowledged the
support Ghana had received from the Hungarian Government including educational
scholarships and investment especially in the areas of construction, renewable
energy, health, agriculture, Information and Communication Technology (ICT) and
food processing.
He said the Civil Service was the
main vehicle which provided policy and administrative support to the
Government.
He said through its ministries
and departments, it provided direct and diverse services to support the
formulation and implementation of government policies, programmes and projects.
Therefore, he said, it was
imperative to form strategic partnerships and alliances with reputable
institutions for knowledge sharing and capacity building.
Mr Balogh, on his part, said the
visit to Ghana was also to enable him to meet government officials and the
Ghanaian business community to stimulate co-operation in the areas of water
management, education, ICT and civil and public service administration.
He said Hungary had already
started an exchange programme with Ghana’s Foreign Affairs, and was prepared to
extend it to areas such as infrastructure and land administration.
Mr Balogh said during his
interactions with key stakeholders, they discussed issues such as using ICT
solution in fee and data collection and capacity building as demanded by modern society.
He said within the past 27 years,
Hungary had undergone a lot of reforms at the economic, social and public
administration front, which had changed the mentality of the people who worked
in the public administration sector.
Mr Balogh said if the mentality
of the people changed positively, it automatically had rippling effects on the
general wellbeing of the people.
“One of the big achievements is
rendering services to the citizenry, and so we created government
administration that was very close to the people, which dealt with social
problems like processing of documents, payment of taxes, healthcare, driving
licences, property issues and so many others that were addressed at a one-stop
shop office,” he said.
“Therefore we need effective
Civil Service to transform the economy and create more added value, which would
translate into increased Gross Domestic Product and income for the people,” he
stated.
Ambassador Andras Szabos, the
Hungarian Ambassador to Ghana, said since Hungary re-opened its Embassy on
November 30, last year, it had witnessed a surge in activities with various
business delegations visiting the Embassy to establish relationship.
He said Hungary would like to
achieve mutually beneficial results with Ghana in different sectors of the
economy, therefore, there was the need to build trust between them and share
ideas that would improve their lot.
Ambassador Szabos said the
Hungarian Government had been offering 50 educational scholarships to
Ghanaians, which would increase to 100 next year adding the scholarship would
be offered to the ministries, departments and agencies based on their needs.
The bilateral relation between
Ghana and Hungary dates back to the post-independence era, which culminated in
the signing of many agreements.
GNA
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