Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade Promotion Carmelo Abela, and Minister for Home Affairs and National Security Michael Farrugia, visited the Civil Protection Department's grounds in Ħal Far to welcome a group of Ghanaian firefighters, who are currently receiving training in firefighting in Malta by their Maltese counterparts.

Following the success of last year's training course, the Ministry for Foreign Affairs and Trade Promotion and the Ministry for Home Affairs and National Security once again financed the amount of €30K in training expenses, in honouring Malta's commitment towards official development assistance.

On this occasion, Minister Carmelo Abela took the opportunity to thank the members of the Maltese Civil Protection Department and the Ministry for Home Affairs and National Security for organising this elaborate training exercise for a second consecutive year.

Minister Abela said that "the provision of capacity-building measures, the sharing of best practices, and the strengthening of Malta's bilateral relations, were at the heart of Malta's Official Development Assistance policy and the core of the government strategy, in particular when engaging with Sub-Saharan Africa. In fact, through such policy, other measures have been implemented by the Ministry to promote empowerment and growth in the region, including the full financing of sponsorships of University of Malta degrees at Masters level to students from Ghana, among other countries, as well as more capacity-building initiatives such as professional banking courses offered by The Central Bank of Malta to Gambian central bankers."

Carmelo Abela said that "this initiative was an attestation of the role Malta wants to play in collaborating with Ghana in its endeavours of safeguarding the wellbeing of its nation, as a means of strengthening the excellent ties between the two countries. This builds on the recent opening of respective High Commission offices in Valletta and Accra." 

Home Affairs Minister Michael Farrugia welcomed the initiative and cooperation between the Malta Civil Protection Department and Ghanaian firefighters. He said that this is the second group of Ghanaian firefighters who are being further trained by Malta Civil Protection Department.

During this week of course, Ghanaian firefighters will undergo intense training in using breathing apparatus, fire behaviour and industrial fires amongst others.