Ghana's 47th Independence Anniversary Celebrated
By Yusuf Alghali

6th March 2004 - The "Made-In-Ghana Goods Exhibition" currently underway at the Atlantic Hall of the National Stadium in Freetown is part of a series of activities marking Ghana's 47th Independence Anniversary in Sierra Leone. President Kabbah who gave the keynote address to mark Ghana's Independence Anniversary, also performed the cutting of the tape at the exhibition's opening ceremony last Saturday, 6 March 2004. He made reference to the Economic Community of West African State's (ECOWAS) objective for an open sub-regional market and the free movement of peoples of all ECOWAS countries within the sub-region.

The President, who also pointed to Ghana's strong historic and cultural affinity with Sierra Leone, recalled that Ghanaian soldiers while serving with the ECOWAS peace monitoring group - ECOMOG and the United Nations peacekeeping mission in Sierra Leone - UNAMSIL had made the extreme sacrifice to shed their blood so that Sierra Leone can have peace and democracy.

He said he looked forward to more fruitful cooperation and collaboration with the government and people of Ghana as well as a further strengthening of the already existing strong fraternal and bilateral ties between the two countries.

Earlier in his address, Ghana's High Commissioner to Sierra Leone Mr. Kabral Blay-Amihere said as Ghana gained its independence some forty-seven years ago, she also "opened the gates of freedom not just for Ghanaians but for all Africans".

"47 years later," he added, "we are proud as a nation to say that we remain committed to the pledge of our founding fathers, to use our independence and nationhood for the betterment of all Africa."

He said Ghana's continued participation in peacekeeping operations of the United Nations was in line with Ghana's longstanding policy to contribute to the peace of the world.

Touching on the aims of the exhibition, which featured exhibits from the Association of Ghana Industries and the Ghana Export Promotion Council, the High Commissioner disclosed that the exhibition sought to create partnerships between entrepreneurs of the two countries, while at the same time showing a snapshot of "some of the modest gains we have made as a nation in 47 years".

Exhibits viewed by President Kabbah include a range of machine and hand-woven textiles, traditional Kente cloths, distilled products, medicines, aluminium and plastic household goods as well as ready-made garments.

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