A high-powered delegation led by Madam Paula Gopee-Scoon, Trinidad and Tobago's Minister of Trade and Industry, paid a working visit to Mr Kobina Tahir Hammond, Ghana's Minister of Trade and Industry at his office in Accra on Tuesday.

During the visit, the Association of Ghana Industries (AGI) and Trinidad and Tobago Manufacturers Association signed a Memorandum of Understanding to formalise trade collaboration in the manufacturing sector.

Under the agreement, the two institutions would collaborate in the areas of export trade and technology, and skills training in the oil and gas industry.

Madam Gopee-Scoon said Tobago was expanding its economy beyond oil and gas and broaden its manufacturing sectorhence the partnership with the AGI.

She said the country was interested in exporting its products, including food and beverages, and chemicals to Ghana and import Ghanaian products into Trinidad and Tobago.

Madam Gopee-Scoon said investors in Trinidad and Tobago were also interested in exploring investment opportunities in Ghana and welcomed Ghanaian investors to invest in Trinidad and Tobago.

She said the current trade volume between Ghana and Trinidad and Tobago was not substantial and called for further collaboration to move the relationship between the two countries beyond cultural and social connections.

"Our mandate is to increase and diversify the non-energy sector and manufacturing sector and put measures in place to ensure that this thrives. The manufacturing sector is doing wellcontributing 20 per cent to our GDP; so we want to see this grow," she said

She added: "We have Ghanaian cocoa butter and fabrics, but we want to do more than that"

Mr Hammond expressed excitement about the opportunity for Ghanaian manufacturers to export their products to Trinidad and Tobago and indicated that the Government's One District One Factory initiative would help to facilitate the trade relations.

He said the cocoa, textile and the garment industries were among the areas of interest and encouraged the AGI to foster fruitful collaboration with their counterparts from Trinidad and Tobago.

"It is good news and we pray that it comes to good fruition...we are expanding the frontiers of our industrialisation and manufacturing activities. We have a whole gamut of areas they can show interest," the Minister said.