President John Evans Atta Mills has held closed door discussions with Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper in Ottawa, as part of his working visit to the North American nation.

Details of the discussion were not made known, but believed to have centered on the relations between Accra and Ottawa, and to strengthen the ties for more co-operation to the benefit of both sides as well as enhancing Canada’s ties with Africa.

Ghana and Canada have had close relations and President Mills, in other discussions, has extended Ghana’s appreciation to his host country for solidly standing behind Ghana in tough times.

President Mills commended Canada for assisting Ghana with technical expertise, s well as working on development projects through Canadian International Development Agency ( CIDA), and the Canadian Commercial Corporation (CCC) which is involved in the construction works at the Tamale Teaching Hospital, accommodation at the Tema General Hospital and the Aboadze Thermal Plant near Sekondi Takoradi.

President Mills had also held discussions with the Canada –Africa Parliamentary Association and the Executives of the CCC, the African Diplomatic Group in Canada, and commissioned the refurbished Ghana Chancellery in Ottawa.

He has also met with the Ghanaian community as part of the working visit which ended on Sunday.

Meanwhile, President Mills earlier whipped up Canadian investor interest in Ghana, as he began his official visit to that country.

Significantly the visit is beginning to yield positive results with the Canadian Commercial Corporation (CCC), declaring its intention to increase its investment in Ghana, as well as partner the country to explore various opportunities to development in Ghana.

At a breakfast meeting with President Mills yesterday in Ottawa, Canada, the leadership of the CCC, which is the main platform through which the Canadian investments are channeled to other countries, noted that the organization was impressed about the economic progress being made in Ghana.

“We are ready to cooperate fully with Ghana,” said Marc Whittingham, President of the CCC, which is currently working on some 2billion dollars worth of development projects in the power, mining, rail, health, aviation and oil and gas sectors in Ghana.

Delighted at President Mills’ visit which he believes would enhance the cooperation between the two countries, and Ghana’s relations with the CCC, Mr. Whittingham, announced that the CCC would next invest in a second power project at Takoradi in support of expanding the nation’s power pool.

“We see vision in Ghana, and the CCC is proud to partner such a country in a win-win situation,” he stressed.

He also announced that a team of investors from the Corporation would be in Ghana next week to explore new areas of cooperation and investment, adding that the various financial institutions in Canada have developed more interest in funding projects in Ghana due to her consolidated economic and political stability.

President Mills, who glad for the expression of support by the Cooperation, indicated that such partnership from Canada would be very helpful in government’s quest for enhanced infrastructural development.

“Ghana is making a lot of progress in the infrastructural development, but a lot more remains to be done,” he said, adding that “we want to welcome more investments from Canada in that direction.”

He assured the Corporation of government’s cooperation to advance the ties with the investor group, and the Canada in general, saying “this is the kind of relations we desire to enhance the welfare of our people.”

Earlier, President Mills on arrival here on Thursday night, interacted with the members of the African Diplomatic Corps in Canada, where he called for more cooperation between African nations for rapid development.

The four-day official visit, is part of President Mills plans to mobilize resources for the better Ghana agenda.

Accompanied by a number of key Ministers President Mills, would as part of the trip, hold talks with his Canadian counterpart to forge ways for improved partnership between Ghana and Canada, as well as interact with the President of the Canadian Council for Africa, for talks on issues of mutual interest.

At the time of going to press, President Mills was due to meet the Prime Minister of Canada and hold talks with the Canada-Africa Parliamentary Association.

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