GHANA AND LUXEMBOURG SIGN A BILATERAL AIR SERVICES AGREEMENT ON TUESDAY, 25TH FEBRUARY, 2020
Ghana and Luxembourg have signed a Bilateral Air Service Agreement (BASA), following a successful final round of negotiations, which were held in Luxembourg City on Tuesday, 25th February, 2020. The Ghana side delegation was led by the Deputy Minister for Aviation, Honourable Yaw Afful, while the Luxembourg side was led by the Head of Department of the Directorate of Civil Aviation of Luxembourg, Mr. Charles Klein.
The two (2) delegations also used the platform of the negotiations to hold fruitful discussions on many areas of mutual interests, including how to deepen and enhance the existing bilateral cooperation in the fields of air cargo and commercial passenger flights, investments and e-commerce, among others.
The Deputy Minister in his remarks stated that Ghana’s development strategy was motivated by the vision of “A Ghana Beyond Aid”, which seeks to transition Ghana into a self-reliant and self-sufficient democratic country. He alluded to the upgrade of infrastructure at airports across Ghana, in particular, the Kotoka International Airport (KIA) with world-class aviation navigation systems, which he noted was intended to position Ghana as an aviation hub in the sub-region.
Honourable Yaw Afful expressed the hope that the conclusion the Bilateral Air Services Agreement (BASA) would open up Ghana to more trade and investment opportunities from Luxembourg, including the sustained growth of the aviation sector.
On his part, Mr. Charles Klein indicated that Luxembourg has closely followed recent developments in Ghana’s aviation industry, which he noted were encouraging and promising. He disclosed that the signing of the agreement was an important step for the strengthening of the Ghana-Luxembourg relations as well as the institutionalisation of the partnership between the aviation authorities of both countries. Mr. Klein stressed that the agreement offered the unique possibility of exploring more opportunities for the mutual benefit of the two countries.