The Danish Ambassador to Ghana, Ms Tove Degnbol, who disclosed this in Accra, said its development cooperation would then focus on deepening trade among them, with focus on intensifying Danish investments in Ghana.

At a joint launch of the Evaluation of the Ghana–Denmark Partnership (2007–2017) and the Governance Documentation Study in Accra, Ms Dengbol said, “We tell Danish companies to be conscious about the fact that they stand on the platform of good collaboration and mutual trust, which have been built up over so many years, and we urge them to respect the same values that have guided our cooperation.”

Cooperation evaluation

In order to take stock of its development cooperation, Denmark undertakes country evaluations at regular intervals.

The current evaluation was to assess Denmark’s development cooperation with Ghana in the areas such as governance, health and private sector development from 2007 to 2017.

According to Ms Degnbol, while the evaluation last year was used as a guide for further development cooperation between Ghana and Denmark, the newly evaluation was to “assess if the development cooperation provides a good basis for the commercial cooperation between our two countries.”

“We believe that the mutual trust established between Ghana and Denmark over the years of development co-operation is valuable and it is paving the way for our trade cooperation,” the ambassador said.

Our Embassy remains

Ms Degnbol explained that the development did not imply that Denmark would totally phase out its presence in Ghana, and gave an assurance that its embassy would continue to operate.

“We will maintain our embassy and remain as active as always but we are changing the focus from development cooperation to trade, while we continue our good political co-operation with Ghana and also our large visa section,” she stated.

Ms Degnbol further gave an assurance that until 2020, the embassy would offer support to Danish companies and their Ghanaian partners to make the transition a success.

NDPC

For her part, the Director-General of the National Development Planning Commission (NDPC), Dr Grace Bediako, stated that the findings of the evaluation would provide a foundation to the Commission to engage stakeholders in areas of development.

She expressed appreciation to the Danish government and other development partners for their support towards initiatives such as the National Health Insurance Scheme and the decentralisation reforms in Ghana.

“We look forward to further productive collaboration in the newly-defined partnership for development,” she stated.

Denmark and Ghana

The partnership between Denmark and Ghana has existed since independence in 1957. However, the Embassy of Denmark in Accra was opened in 1961.

In 1989, Ghana was among the first 12 Danish Programme cooperation countries for the implementation of the Danish Strategic Action Plan of 1988.

The Danish assistance grew from DKK 6.9 million (about $10.46 million) in 1990 to DKK 566 million ($85.78 million) in 2010, before decreasing to approximately DKK 230 million ($46.94 million) by 2015.