Cross Border Tripartite Meeting underway at Bolgatanga

Narration: A 3-day Tripartite Meeting involving delegates from the Central East of Burkina Faso, the Savanna Region of Togo and the Upper East Region of Ghana is underway at Bolgatanga in the Upper East Region. The meeting among other interventions aimed at strengthening the bond of friendship, deepen cross border cohesion and above all promote peaceful co-existence for the movement of goods and people of the three regions. It is also held to create a solid platform to discuss regional cooperation issues and to share experiences between the three regions in sectors such as environment, child trafficking, security, transport, custom and trade as well as animal husbandry among other health related issues including Female Genital Mutilation (FGM). Correspondent Isaac Asare was at the meeting and has filed this report for Radio Ghana.CUE IN
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Report:

The second tripartite meeting is a follow up to a similar meeting held between September 17 -19 of 2009 at Tengkoudougu, the Central East Regional Capital of Burkina Faso. Delegates at the said conference realized the need to foster and deepen bilateral cooperation among participating states and covered very important areas of common interest. A communiqué issued at the end of the meeting placed particular emphases on the urgent need for the three regions to reinforce socio-economic development actions conducted by local authorities and technical services of the three regions. It also noted the achievements and shortcomings in each sector of the cross border cooperation and further called for the institutionalization of the tripartite meeting through annual meetings on a rotational basis. This year’s meeting has come as a result of the remarkable strives chalked by member states as some district assemblies in the Upper East have established sister city relations with counterparts in neigbouring Burkina Faso and Togo. The Upper East Regional Minister, Mark Woyongo during the opening ceremony expressed his deepest gratitude to the governor of the Central East of Burkina Faso for initiating the idea of deepening cross border relations among participating regions and called for long standing relations to achieve the desired goals and objectives. Mr. Woyongo described this years’ meeting as unique since it aims at contributing to reach the objectives pursued by sub-regional organizations like ECOWAS. According to him, the region through some external funded projects has contributed in improving PAGEV, a project for the governance of the White Volta Basin funded by the International Union for the conservation of Nature. The project, he pointed out has brought close collaboration between the district assemblies of the Upper East Region with their counterparts in Burkina Faso to project, conserve and share the common resources of the White Volta River which runs through their territories. The Governor of the Central East of Burkina Faso, His Excellency, Simeon Sawadogo, also in a brief message reiterated the urgent for cross border countries to establish and co-exist in peace since they share a common cultural practice and language. He also urged delegates of the three regions to participate fully in the ongoing discussions and come with prudent initiatives that would enhance and deepen cross border relations and harmonization. The Governor of the Savannah Region of Togo, His Excellency Alhaji Mossyamba Seidu, for his part lauded the level of cooperation between the three regions with regards to security and called for much progress in their attempt to ensure security at the countries borders. He said the arrest and incarceration of the notorious armed robber, Soloma Johnson Kombia was due to the healthy relationship established between security forces in the regions and encouraged them to remain vigilant in the course of their official duties to help expose criminals from their hide out. Delegates at the course of the meeting would be made to visit some tourist attractions in the upper East Region.